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Changed my clutch, worked for a moment, now only neutral?

H

hallfleming

CEG'er
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
80
Location
North GA
Over the weekend, a buddy and I pulled the tranny on my 90 EO SVT. Replaced the clutch, slave and PP. We noticed the driver side CV was shot so I picked up a new on today. I took it for a test drive and all was well for the first 2 gears. I went to the end of the neighborhood and did a figure 8 full lock to make sure all felt fine. I then started to drive back, first, second, third and clunk free wheeling.

The car feels stuck in neutral. My bushings are MIA on the shift linkage so assumed one of the cables popped off the shift road of the tranny. The white and black cables were still in place. I can move the weighted pendulum that's on the shift tower and hear an audible clunk like its shifting inside. I tried to emulate what the cables would do for first gear placement with no luck. One thing I noticed is when I pull the reverse lock out up and go to every gear, I heard it start to grind if I tried 5th gear. Not sure if that helps understanding the issue. A couple of questions and assumptions:

-mid axle's still in place and looks correctly engaged.

-if I hear the clunking when moving the bottom tranny shift lever on the shift tower, the inside bolt head hasn't sheared correct?

-maybe the shift linkage got messed up during the removal and install?

-if the driver side CV popped out of the tranny, would it cause these symptoms? I thought it would still pull on the passenger side axle?

-does anyone know the positions of the levers on the tranny? I searched and found that the center of both lever throws would be neutral correct?

thanks in advance! i'm beat down, tired and discouraged.... :blackeye:
 
make sure the shift cables are properly seated in the bracket for them. If your bushings on the cables ends are shot or missing it may not be providing enough force to get the car into gear.

Its not a broken bolt in yout shift tower because the "hammer" would just flop around or the car would be stuck in gear.
 
Thank you for the reply. The bushings are completely missing. I've got some coming from a dealership. I just made the assumption that since it worked before without them, it would still work.

svttour said:
make sure the shift cables are properly seated in the bracket for them. If your bushings on the cables ends are shot or missing it may not be providing enough force to get the car into gear.

Its not a broken bolt in yout shift tower because the "hammer" would just flop around or the car would be stuck in gear.
Click to expand...
 
yes, the stock diff is whats called an open diff. it sends power to the wheel that has the least resistance, so if an axle popped out then that side off the diff would zero resistance and it would send all the power to that side, causing you to not move.
 
Make sure you snap the axle into the transmission all the way so it won't come back out. Other than that, good for you for fixing it.
 
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