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New Subaru owner with a shift linkage problem


Arvid
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I just bought myself a 86 1.8 GL 4wd to use as a winter car, my lowered Honda isn´t really the best for driving in snow , good snowplough though :rolleyes:.

Also I think 4wd will be much more fun as winter is approaching here in Norway.

Some pics of my new car :

 

P9260175.jpg

 

P9260176.jpg

 

P9260179.jpg

 

Gotta love that big boot :

 

P9260184.jpg

 

 

 

When I picked up the car there was no problems with it , however just before I got it home I stopped for some gas and suddendly 2nd gear would not engage. Prior to that I had been driving some 70 km´s (about 40 miles) in 4-5th gear and there were no strange noises of any sort. If I try to engage 2nd gear I can feel it´s not getting as far into gear as it should , and when I release the clutch it pops back into neutral , if I forcibly hold the stick in position it will grind.

I crawled under the car while someone was shifting gears and I could see that the shift linkage was not moving as far into 2nd gear as it did into 4th gear , not much , maybe 3-4 mm. Is it likely that this is caused by sloppy shift linkage or is it something inside the tranny ? Anyone have any suggestions on where I should start with this ?

 

Edit : My car has a manual transmission without the hi-lo range selector and 4wd switch on top of the stick.

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I've never had this particular problem. Unfortunately, it does sound internal. but before you start tearing trannies apart or anything, I would check to make sure there's nothing binding up on the linkage. I have had 5th gear act like that once because something fell into in the shift linkage and kept it from going forward to the right. If you take off the rubber boot on the shift lever, you can look at the shift linkage from the top and see if anything is amiss there.

 

Also, does it shift into 2nd easily when the engine is off, or does it act the same.

 

Nice snow tires BTW. Should be fun to drive around in the snow.

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I've never had this particular problem. Unfortunately, it does sound internal. but before you start tearing trannies apart or anything, I would check to make sure there's nothing binding up on the linkage. I have had 5th gear act like that once because something fell into in the shift linkage and kept it from going forward to the right. If you take off the rubber boot on the shift lever, you can look at the shift linkage from the top and see if anything is amiss there.

 

Also, does it shift into 2nd easily when the engine is off, or does it act the same.

 

Nice snow tires BTW. Should be fun to drive around in the snow.

 

It´s the same with the engine off , tried that as well. Is there any chance that replacing the tranny fluid would fix this ? I need to replace the inner CV joint boot on the right side front , so that means I´ll have to change the fluid at the same time. Also , what tranny fluid does these cars use ?

I´m gonna check the linkage from the top when I get back home this weekend. Actually it isn´t too bad driving without the 2nd gear , but I think snow driving will be much more fun with a working 2nd gear :D

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It´s the same with the engine off , tried that as well. Is there any chance that replacing the tranny fluid would fix this ? I need to replace the inner CV joint boot on the right side front , so that means I´ll have to change the fluid at the same time. Also , what tranny fluid does these cars use ?

I´m gonna check the linkage from the top when I get back home this weekend. Actually it isn´t too bad driving without the 2nd gear , but I think snow driving will be much more fun with a working 2nd gear :D

 

I doubt it's tranny fluid. Bad fluid could cause the syncros to not work quite properly, and grind a little going into each gear, but I don't think it could cause it to not actually go into gear. I use 80W90 gear oil in mine.

 

On these cars the inner CV joints slide over a splined shaft that sticks out of the side of the transmission, so you can take them off without affecting the tranny at all. Just drive out the little pin that keeps it on the shaft, and it will slide off -- on mine it won't quite come all the way off unless I loosen all the transmission and motor mounts to shift the tranny over a little though. There's got to be a better way to do that....

 

The inner right front CV boot always seems to go -- I think because the cat is right under it and overheats it. I'm going to put an aluminum heat shield on mine that I just replaced.

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Here is a pic of the shift linkage disconnected from the transmission/car.

 

306IMG_6694-thumb.JPG

 

I was replacing my shifter bushings and found that the bushing closest to the transmission was completly gone but I didn't experiance the problem that you are describing. So check the other bushings closer to the stickshift. So I would say that you either have something shoved up in there or something strange is going on with your transmission.

 

306IMG_6689-thumb.JPG

 

Not to scare you but I experianced the same thing with my 81 4wd 4speed. Wouldn't shift into 3rd gear. Check oil and there was zero. Opened drain plug and all I got was gear teeth. So check your oil.

 

Missing some teeth

306228_2835-thumb.JPG

 

Good luck

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I finally got around to check out my shifter problem today. Yanked the shifter really hard into 2nd gear with the engine off, and it worked :D

Was a little hard to get it out of gear again , but after driving the car a few hundred meters it works just like before , probably something was jammed ?

Also checked the transmission oil level , and it seemed to be way over the max level (like half of the distance between min - max over the max mark). How bad is it if there´s too much oil in the transmission ?

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Not sure if a high fluid level would cause it to not shift.

 

I just remember that I was having a similar problem on my 4sd dual range. When it was cold out I couldn't get it to go into 2nd at all. Like there was a brick wall in my transmission. It wouldn't go at all.

 

Changed the fluid to Synthetic Redline MTL and problem solved. Not sure if you can find MTL in Norway. MTL stands for Manual Tranmission Lube.

 

Here is a website: navigate to gear oil then to maual tranmission oil

http://www.redlineoil.com/

 

http://www.racerpartswholesale.com/redline4.htm

 

Good luck

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you couuld fix this from inside the car.

 

nice hefty hitch on the car. is this dual range 4wd?

 

the shift cover will pop off and the knob unscrews.

 

remove the screws to the rubber boot and there is your bushings.

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Clutch cable might need to be tightened. When I put a new cable in my wagon last week, I had similar problems with it not shifting to second and 3rd.

 

Also like someone else said, change the gear oil in the tranny. you want SAE 75-90 weight gear oil. Get 5 quarts

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