3rd gear is dead......a little help please.

[pyro926]

On my way home from work this morning my car got stuck in 3rd gear. After pulling it quite hard OUT of 3rd, it no longer wants to go into 3rd. I can feel it go to the right position, but when i let the clutch out it just grinds and pops it back out. All other gears work fine and there are no nasty noises other that when I try to force 3rd to work.......

 

Any ideas? Is there any way to check the condition of the tranny w/out pulling it? What am i looking at (time and money) to do a tranny swap? Ive never pulled one of these motors before so not sure what i might be getting myself into.

 

Thanks,

Pyro

[[HTi]Johnson]

The swap isn't too hard and a tranny can be had for under $100 if you know where to find one.

 

I'd try some lucas gear oil additive...but it sounds like a synchro or a fork broke or jammed.

[hatchsub]

Yea I'd bet money your tranny is toast. You can drive around for awhile without 3rd. I would start looking for a new tranny though. As said ^ they can be had for under 100. I payed 56 for mine from Harry's U pull-it in PA. Low miles on it too. But i got super lucky with that one.

[naru]

Get underneath and check for slop in the shift linkage.

[brat82]

drain the gear oil and look for bits? lottsa brass is your syncros, also the softest metal in there...I took a sub trans apart, and replaced some stuff,put back together and still didn't have 3rd. It would "feel" like it went in with the cluch, but when you released clutch, it would grind...I could get it into 3rd, with double and triple clutching. I got another for $50 thats in the car now, and 2 others apart :-\, that I'm in no hurry to put back together,right now...

[GeneralDisorder]

It's shot. The problem resulted from a loose linkage - the shift dog doesn't engage far enough when the linkage is loose like that, and eventually shears off. Now that it's gone though, there is no point in fixing it - too expensive and labor intensive. Just replace the tranny.

 

GD