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Shift Linkage?

S

svttouruofl

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 20, 2006
Messages
347
Location
Southern Indiana
Well I was leaving a friends house last night a I was backing down his drive. Then I put it in 1st to head out and all the sudden the shifter just kind of slid into nuetral on its own. Now its like my entire gearbox is nothing but nuetral. I cannot get it to engauge in any gear. I can move the shifter freely even when clutch is released and there is no grinding or any noise coming from the tranny or clutch. I still have normal pedal pressure on the clutch. I can put the shifter in the first gear position and slide it across the top straight through 3rd to 5th without ever dropping it into the nuetral position. I removed the boot and center console and everything looks normal in that area. Would broken linkage cause this? What else could possibly be going on?

Also the car is still at his house and it is only about 4 miles from me on backroads. Is there any way that I can manually engauge the tranny into say 2nd gear just to get the car home to where I can work on it?
 
Same thing happend to me like 1 month ago. I got new shifter linkage from ford for like 12 bucks and it shifts like a champ now. You can manualy engage into second gear, just take your air intake out and move the shift tower into second. If it the shifter cable and linkage is fine then u might have broke the shift tower bolt.
 
I'm a little confused on what the shift tower is that you are referring to. I found this diagram that may help.

shift.gif


Here is what I can see that is going on with mine. I can see both the shift and selector cables moving at the shifter(#'s 2 and 3). The gearshift lever(#5) moves back and forth when I shift from 1st the 2nd. I see no movement of anything at all when I move the shifter side to side just front to back. My car is in neutral now. Do I need to move the shift lever into the neutral position and then move the selector lever into gear?
 
The shift tower is what 4 & 5 are connected to. If you can get 5 to move as you move the shift stick forward and back then the 2 cable is OK. If 4 does not move when you move the stick right to left through the neutral gate, either 3 cable is broken or something is jamned.

Remove the cable from 4 and see if moving the shifter through the neutral gate moves the cable end. If it does, look for your your problem inside the trans, probably the shift tower. If it doesn't move, very likely you have a broken cable.

If the trans and shift tower are OK, you should be able to remove the cables from the shift tower and shift by hand at the tower.
 
Read this post:
http://contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=8819

And this one:
http://contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=5860

Part number:
http://contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?t=7979

What happens is there is a shaft that shift in and out in the shift tower, this rod also rotates... there is a bolt that holds some pieces to that shaft and when the bolt sheers, you loose the ability to move the gears because the shaft rotates and goes in and out with out moving the pieces you need to move to move the forks..... assuming this is what has broken.. which is what it sounds like, double check your linkage to make sure it's all connected still... but if you can go on top of the tranny and move that counterweight around freely... it's a good sign your bolt has sheered... I would suggest NOT driving your car... because if the bolt sheered... you risk the tranny catching it and throwing it out the transmission housing and having a nice hole in it...
 
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do you have a short throw? i have a fidanza and twice now ive broken the ball off the bottom of the shifter that connects it to the linkage. if thats the case pop it in second get it home and take out the ball and weld it all around. itll probably work with any shifer too.
 
No I didn't have a short throw but I'm almost positive that it is the shift tower bolt. I'll know for sure tom. because I'm going to pull it but thanks for the info.
 
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