After pulling out my transmission and taking the case off I figured out why it kept popping out of 2nd, 4th and reverse.

The problem is that the shifter would hit the back of the "socket" and not allow it to fully engage and pop out of gear. You can see where the mark is on the shifter where it hits and the distance the gear is from fully engaging over the synchro, (a long ways off).

I took apart another transmission as a test and used two shifters and it did it to both of them so I would think this could happen to a lot of them and hopefully fix them without taking them out of the car and to a tranny shop for nothing.

I thought I would be able to adjust the shift "tang" that actually moves the actuaters to change gears but it is keyed....so I just ended up grinding the shifter where it hit, enough to make sure if fully engaged and now I can down shift and back my car up without it popping out!

Hope this helps someone down the road.

Interesting.

It's possible that the shifter was manufactured slightly "off" and that wear in the tranny finally got things to the point where it became a problem.

Thank you SledZ for the pic 1 as my shifter is "sloppy" and your pic shows the black ring that I think is broken in my tranny. There was an article in zhome on that and how to change to a brass ring. Now I have a better imagination .

Rolf

Resurrecting the old thread. I just fixed my 5th gear by following Sledz's advice. The shifter wouldn't completely engage the gear - thus making the shifter pop back into neutral. Thanks Sledz!!!

This is good to know. I knew there would be an interference problem at least in your two cases. Others don't seem to have the problem of popping out of gear. The problem is that the bottom portion of the shift lever below the pivot is around 5/16"(not certain off hand, I have pics in my gallery showing differences) longer than the lever from a 5 spd. Using the 4 spd lever in a 5 spd transmission makes the marks you show and it would interfere with full engagement.

I'm glad you found the problem and the fix.

SledZ thanks alot!! Ive just recieved a "new" shifter arm, so i can finish the conversion the PO started and get the cockpit to lock decent again.

But when i popped in the lever, it started to pop out of gear, same gears as you describe Then i found this very nice thread with pics and everything, and did same, and now everything works well again :laugh:

Pictures of the levers, i am not sure what kind of lever the PO installed, but it is bend a bit to the side, and close to pretty straight up.

This is a weird problem. Which lever are you using? The one on the right looks like it has a longer throw, and would be less likely to have the problem.

Actually it is the other way around. The reason is that the longer lever under the pivot point will go deeper into the shifter body. That means a larger diameter lever will enter the hole in the shifter body at the same time the angle which the lever can be tilted before hitting will be getting smaller. I have tried to illustrate it on a drawing under, hope it makes sense, it is evening here in Denmark :classic:

The red arrows show where the longer lever under the pivot point is interfering with the shifter body, where the shorter dosent have the same depth.

Best Regards Martin

I have to disagree. For the same angle and throw distance above the shift lever pivot point, the one with the longer arm beneath the pivot point will move the striking rod farther. It's the movement of the striking rod that determines how far the top will move. Or, in different terms, for the necessary movement of the striking rod, the lever with the longer throw will end up at a smaller angle.

Anyway, glad you shared a solution. Still odd, since those parts were designed to work together. It implies that there are significant differences in striking rods, or something else, among the various transmissions.

Martin is correct, the rod on the right will have shorter throws.

The shift rod movement required to engage a gear is a constant. The longer arm will move the shift rod more per degree, thus the shorter throws. This is how short-throw shifters typically work...

Edited my error away. Just causing confusion.

The reason there is a problem is because the actuating lever (what should that thing be called?) of the rod on the right sits too deep in the hole.

Edited October 3, 201410 yr by Zed Head

Zed Head: The longer the arm beneath the pivot point, the less you need to move the upper lever to travel the same lenght (try this with a pensil, and move the pivot point on the table).

This is why a short shifter can be made either by shortening the upper arm, means that youll need to move your hand less to do the same (minor circle) or you have to increase the lever from the pivot point into the gearbox (as my case).

EDIT:

The lever one the left, will have a longer movement in the top, to reach the same stop at the gearbox. When i read your post im still not happy with it But it worked, so all is good

Edited October 3, 201410 yr by Werup

My apologies. I mixed up my terminologies, using throw for the actuating portion below the pivot, and for the lever itself.

What I said wasn't backward in whole, it was internally inconsistent.

Edited October 3, 201410 yr by Zed Head