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Gear Shifting Lever

S

Shirien

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Messages
35
Dear lord, how I hoped I'd never have to come here again. (No offense.)

My gear shifter won't shift into reverse. At all.
That isn't to say it -can't-. Typically, when putting the vehicle in reverse, I have to lift up on this little 'pully' underneath the handle so it can slide into reverse (this is NOT the linkage or the trans axle, just the stick-shifter thing -itself-). However, today (as of 11:55 a.m. 15Oct09), it won't even permit me to do that. When I -do- manage to force (force, mind you, engine of or on, regardless, I have to put my whole body weight into it) it into reverse, it takes an equal amount of force to take it -out- of reverse..

'95 Ford Contour GL MTX 5-speed.

Suggestions?
 
check the engine/trans mounts and roll restrictors for wear. also check the shift linkage. but with a rod shift I would expect that to cause issues in all gears.

the reverse lock out works on a cable. might take the shift knob off and see if the cable is still attached to the collar.
 
BrApple said:
check the engine/trans mounts and roll restrictors for wear. also check the shift linkage. but with a rod shift I would expect that to cause issues in all gears.

the reverse lock out works on a cable. might take the shift knob off and see if the cable is still attached to the collar.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm fairly sure it's not the transaxle or the shift linkage. Reverse has always given me trouble (until I found out about the cable x3), but I can try and check the cable, at the very least.
 
Shirien said:
Is there any way of removing that reverse lock all together?
Click to expand...
yeah. remove the shift knob, then remove the collar from the lever. from there you remove the black rubber boot down at the bottom and a white insulation piece. then you can remove a snap ring and pull pull straight up on the shifter to remove it. once you have the shifter out just cut the cable from the top and slide the rest out the bottom. then reinstall the shifter.
 
striker2 said:
yeah. remove the shift knob, then remove the collar from the lever. from there you remove the black rubber boot down at the bottom and a white insulation piece. then you can remove a snap ring and pull pull straight up on the shifter to remove it. once you have the shifter out just cut the cable from the top and slide the rest out the bottom. then reinstall the shifter.
Click to expand...

Many thanks. I have most of that completed already, because the idea came to me earlier. I haven't removed the snap ring yet, though. I wanted to ask, first, before messing with something I haven't the knowledge of yet.
 
Well my car does the same thing, I just opened the plastic under the shifter and pushed down on the plastic pin. if it doesn't want to shift, you might not be pushing down far enough on the pin.
 
Well, I just removed the reverse lock cable and the pin inside the stick shift, and it -still- doesn't want to go into reverse. There's a small block inside the box itself, we're going to try removing that, thinking that, maybe, it's hitting it somehow.
 
that block is what the pin inside the lever hit to prevent you from getting to reverse. there should be plenty of clearance between it and the shift lever without the pin. i would start thinking about pulling the shift tower and looking at it.
 
striker2 said:
that block is what the pin inside the lever hit to prevent you from getting to reverse. there should be plenty of clearance between it and the shift lever without the pin. i would start thinking about pulling the shift tower and looking at it.
Click to expand...

Aye, that's what I thought. But still, it takes all our strength to put it in and out of reverse. Not sure what a 'shift tower' is, but, I'm going to (later, possibly) jack up the car and pull out the box that the linkage connects to (where the shifter is) and removing that block. I don't know if it's getting hit or not: this whole thing just started today and I can't think of any reason that it'd give me such problems.
 
Shirien said:
Aye, that's what I thought. But still, it takes all our strength to put it in and out of reverse. Not sure what a 'shift tower' is, but, I'm going to (later, possibly) jack up the car and pull out the box that the linkage connects to (where the shifter is) and removing that block. I don't know if it's getting hit or not: this whole thing just started today and I can't think of any reason that it'd give me such problems.
Click to expand...
the shift tower is bolted to the top of the trans and can be removed after you get the air intake out of the way. it has a built in reverse lockout that forces you to go to neutral from fifth before it moves out of the way. i suspect that piece is stuck and your having to physically move it via the shift lever to get into reverse.

edit: I have a pretty good write-up around here (CEG) somewhere that talks about how to get the tower back in and lined up with the shift rod after you have taken it out.
 
striker2 said:
the shift tower is bolted to the top of the trans and can be removed after you get the air intake out of the way. it has a built in reverse lockout that forces you to go to neutral from fifth before it moves out of the way. i suspect that piece is stuck and your having to physically move it via the shift lever to get into reverse.

edit: I have a pretty good write-up around here (CEG) somewhere that talks about how to get the tower back in and lined up with the shift rod after you have taken it out.
Click to expand...

Searching for it now. The repair guide for this vehicle that I got mentions nothing about this. Really, I'm not a mechanic, I can just follow directions. (Amazing how far that can get one, y'know?) I'll do some web browsing, too. Many thanks.
 
Whoo, all fixed. It urns out it was the reverse lock on the stick after all. Had to remove that -and- the block inside, because the actual linkage kept striking it constantly. Once we looked inside, it had alot of wear on it from being hit. Many thanks for the advice, all.
 
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