klutzki Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 This is what happens when one wrenches on a car without prior research: I replaced the shifter cable on my fiancee's AT FWD Impreza, and now the car seems stuck in neutral. No matter what gear I select, I can freely rotate the front right tire, which is up in the air. I'm guessing I put too much force on the shifter bolt when I removed or retightened the cable. Do you have any clue what I broke? I do have a (Haynes?) manual, but it's 130 miles away, and I'm not gonna see it for a couple of weeks. Thanks, Klutki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Sounds normal to me. Both wheels off the ground it doesn't matter what "gear" it's in, including park, they will still spin. Autos need fluid pressure in order to engage the clutches and bands. This means the engine has to be running. With the engine off there is no pressure so regardless of which gear the trans is placed, the wheels can still be spun by hand, the car can be rolled, etc. In park the parking pawl just sticks up into a notch in the output drum of the trans. The output drum drives the differential pinion gear directly, so when it is placed in park the differential is essentially locked in place. But because of the way an open differential works, if both wheels are off the ground, spinning one wheel just causes the other to spin the opposite direction. http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm Cable adjustment is important since the length of the cable between the transmission selector lever and gear selector in the console determines which gear the transmission goes into when the console selector is moved. When you place the console selector in the park position, you want the transmission selector to move to the park position and stop on the holding detent. If it doesn't stop on the detent, it may pop out of park (or other gear) on it's own and the car can roll away. Check the adjustment of the cable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klutzki Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Fairtax, Only one wheel is off the ground. I had the cable adjusted so that the indicator on the dash and the indicator on the console matched--and the engine just revved without moving the car in all gears. The car was getting hard to shift after sitting a while, and I broke the cable by wrenching on the shifter too hard. So when I replaced the cable, I figured, why not take off the shift lever on the transmission, clean things up a bit and grease it up? (that and the bushing on the cable would not come off the shift lever) What I fear is that I broke something inside the transmission when I took off the rusty nut that attaches the shift lever to the transmission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Ahh ok. Yeah I don't know what might have broken if it did. Maybe something inside the case just popped out of place if you turned the lever over too far. That means you get to drop the pan THIS website has an FSM for 92 Legacy. That FSM should also have some relevant info on the 4EAT trans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klutzki Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 Drop the pan. Fun times... Thanks for the link, Fairtax. I'm checking out the online manual... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klutzki Posted June 18, 2011 Author Share Posted June 18, 2011 What I broke: I think the service manuals calls this the "manual paddle" or something. I welded it back together, but now I'm not sure if the parking rod is still connected; it seems completely loose, and i can't see the end of it , and I don't even have the space to pull it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 (edited) Ok you see that metal arm with the roller bearing on the end of it. That's called the detent spring. The bearing on that is supposed to ride on the "manual plate" which is that part with the teeth on it right next to it. Reset that if you haven't. It should have one bolt holding it to the trans case. I can see one other problem you might have, there is a rod over top of the valve body that attaches to the manual lever. The rod fits into the end with the hole. That rod is called the parking rod, which I assume means it engages the parking pawl. It looks like it just slides into a hole in the case, but it's impossible to see with the valve body still in the transmission. There is also what looks like a spring on the other end of the rod that could have fallen off. (Pics in the FSM I'm looking at are not very clear) I'd remove the detent spring and move the selector lever by hand while you make sure the transmission will go into park. Try to spin the wheel that's off the ground to be sure. If that works, re-install the detent spring, put the pan back on, cross your fingers and hope it works. If the trans doesn't go into park when the selector is moved to the park position you'll probably have to pull the valve body to see how to put the rod back in place. There is also another rod that connects from the valve body to the bottom end of the manual lever. You'll have to track that down and try to get it reconnected if you haven't. The FSM suggests placing the selector in second gear during installation the valve body to get the rod inserted properly. I have no idea how it would be done otherwise. Hopefully you can figure something out. From looking at the pic there, it looks like the rod might have slid into the valve body. I'd try the paper clip/pick approach first to pull it out to where you can grab it. That's what I would try, but I don't have an open transmission in front of me to play around with. All I can really say beyond that is good luck. Edited June 19, 2011 by Fairtax4me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klutzki Posted June 20, 2011 Author Share Posted June 20, 2011 The valve was easy to fish out with a magnet. I putzed around for hours trying to get the parking rod to engage, and the only way I could get things to work was to put it in the park position, then get the manual lever entirely into the opening and slide the end onto the parking rod, and then to push the whole thing into the parking pawl so the spring on the end of the rod compressed enough to pivot the manual lever down. Damn thing fell on my face a dozen times before I got it. I'm guessing it was designed to be assembled with the valve body removed, but this worked for me. Tomorrow I'm gonna get a new filter and fluid, and hopefully that'll be the end of my troubles... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
klutzki Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Alright--One filter and eight oz (!) of fluid later, everything is working smoothly. Saint Dextron protect us from the unholy drip. Thanks! Klutzki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fairtax4me Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Great! Good to hear you got it put back together, and that it still works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now