tranny stuck in gear

[Pathfinder]

Just put my 85 back on the road, was lovin it til two days later it gets stuck in high (5th) with shifter in neutral.. My inclination is to find a tranny or parts car with good one. I do work on engines but transmissions, not so much.. How bad is this to fix... Will inquire about trans listed here and am negotiating for a 87 parts car... Same trans ?

Thanks

[Petros]

Welcome to the list!

Where are you at? It is far cheaper and easier to replace the tranny with another used one than rebuild. the '87 trans should work. Try draining the oil to see what is in it. Mine once got stuck in 2nd gear (drove home 60 miles in 2nd!), it made a lot of bad noised, but I got home. The shift forks wear enough to break off, usually the metal parts does bad things to rest of gear cluster.

This usually happens from poor lube, so keep the trans oil topped up and fresh, the trans should last a long time.

Might consider new clutch while you are there, possible new trans seals if there is any question about the seals on the replacement trans.

Good luck.

[takza]

I'd pull the shifter first and put in 1/2 cup gear oil to see if that might free things up...one thing you NEVER do with a manual trans is to force the gears. Not saying you did...but I'd suspect that's how a lot of these kinds of problems start....that and DRY RUST in the shifter.

[Jarf]

May still be worth pulling the tranny off and seeing what is inside.
Several years ago, when I was having a bad day, car was loaded with gear and I woke up to a flat tire, didn't feel like digging out the spare so I filled it with air and could not see a leak, went to the jobsite where I parked on a slight incline (nose down, trans in rev) got out and heard the tire leaking, decided the best course of action was to just roll the car a bit and take the pressure off the leak, in my haste I reached through the open window and yanked it out of reverse and expected the car to roll ahead which it did not.
Now it was jammed in 5th and the shifter was in neutral.
I pulled the tans off (after having it towed home) and could not find anything truly wrong, all the people I talked to said it was trash and should be replaced/rebuilt.
I put everything back as it should be and slipped the trans back on, took a few tries but managed to get it.
While I suspect I bent something it hasn't been a problem since, but I am more careful about what I do to it.

By the way, that was 5 years and 100,000 km ago, so it is possible to cheat death, sometimes.

[gretchen]

Last night I was checking my trans fluid level and it was a little low, I topped it off and let it drain, while the plug was out a friend was in the car and changed gears from first to reverse. When I got in it to move it and the shifter was stuck in reverse. The transmission is in neutral. I believe I took out a plug that was a few inches forward of the real drain/filler plug. This plug had an extension off the end of the threads. Quite poossibly I shoved the filling tube in too far and bumped a shift rail? Or possibly that the extension was a pivot point of some sort? I dopn't know a whole lot about transmission but my dad is fairly familiar with them. Any ideas what's wrong, what I did or what can be done? If it comes to it I'll just pull the trans out and have a look inside but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.