Shifter pops out of 1st

[rogergoochman]

When I start to disengage the clutch in first gear occasionally itll pop out of gear. It only happens in first, no other gear. But if it doesnt pop out in the first 3 to 4 feet of rolling its in and it stays in. And once it pops out i just put it back in and its fine, never pops out twice. Its not really a huge problem at the time being its just annoying. I searched and alot of threads say possibly the synchros. Not sure though maybe do you think the cables just need to be adjusted? Suggestions? Thanks!1

 

[eclipsh]

I'd check the shifter adjustment, look for wear on shift cable bushigns under the hood and inside the car and see where that'll get you.

After that my guess would be worn bearings inside the tranny. I'd expect worn synchros to grind, not pop out of gear. It sounds more like you just aren't getting full engagement.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

I have the same exact problem on a 2g! IT's annoying. You never know if the shifter is going to pop out or stay. If you hold it in place it won't pop out. Other gears are fine.

I want to investigate the easy stuff first.

 

[pboglio]

The death of a tranny always starts the same, 1 gear pops out occasionally, then all the time, then another gear goes, then the tranny is dead.

I've seen this from a worn stock shift fork. That will then cause rounded dog teeth from partial engagement and require all sorts of fun replacement parts within the tranny. Never seen a worn synchro or worn bearings myself, though those are also failure modes, just the above mentioned problems. I've been thru 2 DSM trannys.

I would do this to start, engage the transmission from within the engine bay right on the tranny itself, say 1st gear. Then get in the car, depress the clutch, start the motor, then let out the clutch. If it pops out after this during multiple attempts, you can discount any shifter cables causing the issue.

You might be able to nurse it along for a few months, and I've been there twice already, but eventually the tranny lets go completely and things go from cheap to expensive. They are going to rebuild your core, but if your gears are fubarred, you might as well buy a brand spanking new tranny at that point.

My advice, get a quote from T.R.E. (awesome, and I do mean awesome service & warranty) for a rebuilt tranny using your core. If you can, stop driving the car immediately and yank the tranny and just bite the bullet, this will keep your rebuild cost down to the minimum.

 

[rogergoochman]

see mine only does it in spurts. like itll pop out on and off for a couple of days. And then it wont happen again for weeks. Ive been driving like this for probably a year now. But I dont beat on my car at all, not one bit, because of this very fact. Maybe thats why ive gone this long with no problems. I need to save up for a new trans im just super tight on money, so ill have to see how long i can ride this one out.

 

[pboglio]

It might be worn shift linkage and squishy stock bushings. I'd do the solid shifter base bushings and the solid bearing/bushing upgrade on the tranny side and see how things progress. If yours are stock and old the amount of squish and play eats up ALOT, I mean ALOT of shifter travel that you need to engage the hub slider. If its not popping out that much as you say then maybe the wear on the dog teeth is minimum and you can stay out of the tranny altogether. After these upgrades you should get that "double" click when you shift into gear which means good solid hubslider/dogteeth engagement and no popping out of gear.

Like I said, the way to diagnose is to engage the tranny directly within the engine compartment. Hope this helps.

 

[rogergoochman]

Update.....
I did the solid shifter bushings under the shifter plate. It tightened it up alot. Pops out alot less now. Going to do the underhood bushings here soon and fresh fluid change. And i'll post back up my results!

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

I recently rebuilt my trans due to the fact that it was popping out of 1st gear. I decided to rebuild it myself since I could not get a timely response from a one of the well known vendors. Anyway, what pboglio said above is exactly true. Stop driving it. Start looking into replacing it. It's only going to get worse and more expensive to fix if you keep driving it.

I pulled mine apart and the dog engagement teeth on 1st gear were rounded off along with the 1/2 slider. That damage was all due to a worn shift fork not throwing the gear all the way in. If the guy that had this trans before me would have just stopped driving it when it started I probably could have reused the $120 first gear and the $100 hub/slider. And it would have been a quick and easy fix.

Good luck.

 

[mach4g63t]

I recently rebuilt my trans due to the fact that it was popping out of 1st gear. I decided to rebuild it myself since I could not get a timely response from a one of the well known vendors. Anyway, what pboglio said above is exactly true. Stop driving it. Start looking into replacing it. It's only going to get worse and more expensive to fix if you keep driving it.

I pulled mine apart and the dog engagement teeth on 1st gear were rounded off along with the 1/2 slider. That damage was all due to a worn shift fork not throwing the gear all the way in. If the guy that had this trans before me would have just stopped driving it when it started I probably could have reused the $120 first gear and the $100 hub/slider. And it would have been a quick and easy fix.

Good luck.

Thread revival

I just finished an auto to manual swap from a 93 GSX to a 92 TSi. The whole drivetrain. The tranny was fine in the 93 GSX, except for the grind from 1-2 when shifting fast/hard (bad synchros, I'm assuming). Well, no other problems with that tranny.

Now, unfortunately, I am having trouble keeping the car in first gear. It will engage, and stay in, until load is removed from the motor and then re-applied... 'cause that buck, and it pops out. I've got motor mounts, but there is still some movement.

Anyway, 1st just doesn't feel like it 'clicks' into place like it used to. It doesn't still have that notchy feel that 1g dsm trannies are known for. Some friends have suggested shifter fork and syncrhos (I didn't think 1st and reverse were synchro'd).

When manually shifting the transmission with no cables connected and doing it by hand, you can feel all the gears click clearly into position, but for some reason it won't click in hard with the shifter itself. I've adjusted the cables a million times and still can't get anything. I adjusted the bracket on the tranny and it helped a little but I'm still at a loss.

Can anyone offer some advice for adjustments of the cable/bracket or whether or not this is an actual problem within the transmission?

Much appreciated.

 

[->PrOjEcTGS<-]

Yes. 1st is synchro'd and reverse has a synchro at the back of the transmission to slow down the the input shaft.

I'm guessing you have a worn out 1-2 hub with worn synchro rings also.

As long as your shifter is positioned in the center of your shifter boot you should be getting full travel of the shifter cables. Unless one of the cables are broken.

But there is no way to tell what is wrong with it until you pull it out and disassemble it.

 

[jrohner]

You probably have a worn hub and slider. If you have a lot of mechanical experience it's not hard to do the job yourself if you pay attention and are careful, otherwise have a shop that deals with manual transmissions do it. Have all new syncros, bearings and seals put in at the same time because they are only 200 and some bucks. When I got my 2g, a bearing went out in the tranny and destroyed everything including the case; I sure wish I would've fixed it right away since it was noisy. The longer a problem is left alone, the bigger and more expensive the problem is to fix.

 

[4g63t]

have you looked at the detent poppet balls? they are the 3 bolts that go on the front of your transmission in a line. They all have sepret balls and springs. Some times woren poppet balls/springs can cause the balls to slip off the shift rale. I boleave the bottem poppet ball is the one for the 1-2 rale.

 

[1992awdlaser]

Your synchro slider engagement teeth are worn out and can no longer hold the gear or you have a dead intermediate shaft bearing causing the 1-2 assembly to wander and pop out. That's what was wrong with mine anyway.

DSM Transmissions

 

[92AWDHX40]

Had the same problems with 4 gear, had a rebuild.

 

[RedTurboEclipse]

check to make sure your shift fork doesnt look like this

*see attachment*

 

[LiquidX]

Thread revival #2

I'm having issues as well. I have a Jacks Transmissions Value Build (bought it before stages were put in). I purchased it maybe 2 years ago and it only has 5-6k miles on it. I didn't have any issues until I received my car back from my 6 bolt rebuild.

1st gear will pop out at slow speed under 2 conditions that I know of:
Constant steady speed that is very slow i.e. creeping up to a stop sign.
Varying gas from on-off-on-off via pedal.

The other issue is 2nd gear will randomly grind when up shifting regardless of how hard or soft I shift. I have yet to notice any grinding when down shifting from 3rd. It also has not grinded in a shift succession of shift to second :grind:-->back out of second--->shift back to second

Running straight MT90, solid bushing on shifter plate and cable ends.

Please let me know your opinions.