Stick in 4th gear

[hatefukingfakelove@g]

Hello everyone my name is Pete and I'm a backyard machanic at best I don't even know what dsm means,,,,but I can't afford shop rates so here I am.
So my lady was driving in a snow storm and pulled over to rest when she took back off everything was fine then BAMM she couldn't get it outta 4th gear I need any and all possibilities beside buying a whole new tranny....please I'm desperate thanx .
Peter Clark
Fairbanks,ALASKA

 

[CKOPOCT]

Hi Pete. Not a lot to go on... best if you can provide more info on what exactly transpired other than "BAMM." Also give details about the car (YMM, mileage, etc.), and any recent maintenance or work/repairs to or around the transmission, clutch works, shift linkages, center console, etc.

Is this a manual or auto trans?

"DSM" = Diamond Star Motors - a joint venture/partnership between Chrysler and Mitsubishi to manufacture and sell cars. The companies made the same basic car but sold them under different names; Mitsubishi Eclipse (Eagle Talon), Mitsubishi 3000GT (Dodge Stealth)...

As to your 4th gear issue, some possible reasons:

Manual tranny:
- shift linkage(s) separated from the transmission or shift lever
- lost ability to engage/disengage the clutch (bad master cyl or slave cyl, blew the clutch fluid line, leak caused loss of hydraulic fluid, etc.)
- bad transmission (least likely cause)

Auto tranny:
- problem with the valve body where the shift valves won't move (generally caused by dirty fluid - a piece of grit jammed the valve)
- A/T computer malfunction
- potentially bad bands, but you should have noticed slipping and tranny problems well before now...

It's important to tell us what the car IS doing as well as what it ISN'T doing. Run it through every possible scenario with it both running and off. Does the clutch pedal feel normal or is there no resistance any more? Can you change gears when the engine is off? Do the manual select gears (1 & 2) on the auto shifter force the tranny to change gears?

 

[hatefukingfakelove@g]

Wow I was not expecting that much of a response!,I don't know a whole lot she got the car and then she split,and I won it in the divorce so to speak.....so with the engine off it seems to shift just fine for the most part with the engine running it didn't shift outta 1st but i I influenced it to and it kinda made a klunk type sounda try to go in an out of 4th but didi was to guess I'd say it's got 1¹³⁰to⁴0 below zero here, good w/all the other gears,it's negative 30 degrees here but if I was to guess I'd say it's go around 130-40,000 miles on it front wheel drive no turbo,5speed Manuel tranns

 

[CKOPOCT]

Hmmm... sounds like bad synchros to me. Synchros (synchronizers) are brass rings with tapered teeth on them that allow the manual transmission's gears to speed up or slow down so they mesh when shifting. This is necessary because at any given speed the different gears (1st, 2nd, etc.) are all spinning at different rates. So to get the output shaft to mate up with the gear set you need to get the desired gear to spin at the correct speed so the gears will mesh.

Anyway, first thing to do in your case is to drive the car to get the transmission warm. Tough to do without a 1st gear, and hard on the clutch, but it can be done. Try to find some place where you can drive continuously without stopping (around a mall parking lot or something is fine). Fortunately you have 2nd and 3rd. Once the tranny is nice and warm, drain the tranny into a clean pan, then look to see if you see any metal. You'll probably see some gold-like flakes or dust suspended in the oil. That'd be the brass from the synchros. If you see a lot of that, or perhaps chunks, it's time to rebuild the tranny.

I doubt there is another explanation since you can shift into 2, 3, 5, and reverse just fine. Temps play a factor, but not to the extreme of losing just 1 or 2 gears.

Check the oil. If necessary, or to get a really good assessment, strain the oil through a clean white cloth. You can also send the oil out to a lab to get a full chemical analysis, but that's overkill at this stage. Better to save your $ for the likely rebuild.

Edit: hard to read clearly without clear punctuation. It's -30 in Fairbanks, and was stuck in 1st. She lost 4th, but now that gear's fine? Hard to decypher the full issue. I still think you're staring at a bad tranny, but it's possible (maybe) that water collected on the gears and froze them together while it was sitting in that low of a temp. Again, draining and looking at the tranny fluid will tell you a lot.

'Twer I you I'd change the tranny oil and see if that makes a difference (assuming the oil coming out looks relatively okay).

Post your results.

 

[hatefukingfakelove@g]

Check it out you guys I got up and running this morning around5 or 6am it wasn't synchros or the tranny in a whole but oddly enuff ,it was the linkage that runs from the inside off the stick,I got curious and pulled the cotter pin pulled it apart pit it back together and she drove off a Lil ruff at first but with all the gears...I appreciate all of you and thank you for your help,I'll make sure to post a pic of Bessie and I a Lil bit later thank you again

 

[CKOPOCT]

Glad to hear it was the linkage and not the tranny. I'll take free over expensive any day. Odd that the linkage caused 1 & 4 to give you the bird but 2 & 3 were fine... but glad you resolved it.