3rd and 4th gear have both....

[Tercel_jon]

decided to randomly disappear on me.

When Im running the tercel hard...like trying to escape the maw of a semi...(neighborhood road opens up to a 55mph highway) I sometimes push it into third quicker than I can work the clutch. Theres no grinding, just a quick snatch. However, what I really think did it in was my last leg of my commute today which is rather leisurely. My foot wasnt on the pedal right so when I pushed in the clutch, and shifted to 3rd, it ground a little and I corrected myself on the pedal, pushed it further down and it went into gear fine so I continued down the short road at about 20mph and then put her in neutral and rolled to my parking spot.

Left work to go to the store, 1rst gear slowly out of the parking lot, second to the dumpster to take out the trash, 1st again to the stop sign then left the sign. Then before entering the big sharp corner, I shifted to second and held it a 3k through the turn. Went to shift to 3rd and it just wasnt there. I thought I didnt push it far enough, so I tried it again. It jsut simply wasnt there. "ok" I thought, i can deal with no 3rd gear. Shift to forth...and "wait, wtf happened to 4th?!" try 3rd again, than 4th. Repeat procedure until I slowly role into the stores parking lot.

My thoughts are this...either Ive bent some linkage inside the transmission, or the little toyota gear fairy wanted them for something else. Im very much "WTF?!" cause the trans only has 96k on it! >.<

Either way its gonna cost me a minimum of $400 to fix. A new trans every year is just not gonna be feasible. physically and monetarily. When I get it fixed...My battle wagon will be completely re-done and stored for 6 months out of the year. Maybe than I can get them to last two years. lol.

[Tercel_jon]

Update. I drove it to the store with only 1,2nd and 5th. I go inside attempt to use the atm. no luck, so I get in the car and put it in reverse only to find out I rolled forward a little um...ok. Maybe 4th works, how about 3rd? put it in what I assume is third, and well its there, the car wants to go forward when I let off the clutch. So i put it in reverse, and i made sure it was in there, and nope, still rolls forward. I try fifth and the shifter gets stuck in 5th the SAME way it got stuck in 2nd with the old trans. wtf? So I call mom and a friend. They come to the store and my friend manages to get the shifter out of 5th while Im rocking the car back and forth. But no...he didnt. It goes in all the other gears now, but its still stuck in 5th. Also, when we towed it back to the house via a chain, I let the clutch out and there was a ringing noise coming from the trans, however, it still accelerated a little bit. So I know for a fact its in 5th. But wtf was that ringing noise?

I do believe my transmission is toast. Most likely due to low fluid cause this is the same issue I had with the old one. But I drove like a grandma today, so wtf?

[Highlander]

It sounds to me (I'm probably wrong, but what the hey I can hypothesize) like you've got a problem with the shifter and the shift rods, not the tranny itself. Make sure the car is in neutral. If you remove the center console you can get to the 4 bolts on the top of the shifter housing and then the snap ring, now you can pull your shifter up and out. Now you can see the shift rods and the look at the end of your shifter to see some of what is going on. The slots in the shift rods should all be lined up from left to right, this is neutral. As you shift into a gear one shift rod will be moved forward or back depending on which gear you're after. I'll bet the end of the shifter isn't engaging correctly into the shift rods, that's why you sometimes have a gear pair and sometimes you don't. If it were only one gear, I'd suspect the trans, but the pairs coming and going point to improper engagement of the rods, in my opinion.

[Tercel_jon]

Thats my theory as well. Its gotta be something to do with the linkages. But seeing as its now stuck in 5th gear, yet I can move the stick around like normal...doesnt make sense.

Also, when you pull the top of the trans off, you see a recess where the main pivoting rod is. Nothing else. So it HAS to come out to get fixed.

[splatterdog]

You knowingly ran a precious gearbox low on oil twice? Gotta say it- shame on you. Proper maintenance can prevent catastrophe. I thought my 84 was almost done the first time a drained it and saw liquid metal. That was over 100k miles ago and it's operation still hasn't changed a bit. It's in the 260's right now and seeing more daily miles than ever under it's new ownership. It may critically rust out before it ever dies.

Can't offer any advice here on fixing it. You're going to have to tear it down and inspect or just replace it.

I can't stress this enough- Synthetic gear oil is your friend! Flush with reg gear oil once a week until clean and then give it the good stuff. Redline 75w90NS is a fine product that won't change synchro action. Sometimes regular syn gear oils are actually too slippery for a man trans.

[Tercel_jon]

Now hang on a second...I didnt say I knowingly ran it low on oil on purpose. The first transmission was the original...and had a TON of slop in it. It got stuck in second and it was LATER determined it was run low on oil and shit welded itself together. That was ok with me. It was sloppy and i wanted it changed out anyway. I asked the guy to put the right oil in it when he swapped my trans. That was last november. I drove it at 100mph for two straight hours in july...it was checked before and after that run to the beach and it was FINE. Havnt touched it since july. No drips under the car or anything. The reason I said I think its another low oil issue is because its stuck in gear. BUT seeing as how I can still move the shifter around freely, I assume its a linkage issue. It drove to the store FINE although minus 3rd and 4th. Went to put it in reverse, and all of a sudden every gear was 5th gear.

I have a line on another trans...if this one cant be fixed.






On a slightly related note...I drove my Ford LTD to work (its always good to have a backup plan) and on the way home, the shifter fell out. Put it back in and it was fine.

[splatterdog]

I'm not trying to get on your case here, just help. You can't deny maintenance hasn't been neglected. If it was LATER determined as you said, that says it all. Where was the oil? Why not keep a still working tranny in a 25 year old car going. Were the shifter bushings checked for it's slop? Pretty common problem. The tranny's on these cars need to be worshiped. They are what makes the car. $40 worth of premium oil and that first tranny might still be alive today.

Also, and don't take this personal. I'm just going off the info you provided here. I must ask, would you consider yourself an aggressive driver? You seem to have lots of shifter problems. Kinda reminds me of when I had shifter problems. During that time I also had several broken throttle cables and lots of premature tire wear.

Best thing for your T4 trans would be to take most your aggression out on the Ford. You can find those anywhere.

Just sayin..

[Petros]

it does not sound like you abused this trans, but previous owner could have had some bad habits. It sound like something in the linkage popped. but only way to tell now is to drop the trans. You might drain the oil and see if there is a lot of metal in it, than you know you have to pull it. Sometimes the internal shift forks wear if someone drives with hand on shift lever between shifts ( a very bad habit, but I see it all the time), it causes the forks to constantly wear against the shift collars. Maybe you can salvage it if you can get replacement linkage/forks, or what ever disconnected.

Good luck. let us know what you find.

[Neu]

I had 3rd and 4th shit on me too. Mine gets stucks in 3rd though, it's there, just gets stuck.

[Tercel_jon]

I wouldnt say I abused the trans...Yes i do have to accelerate rather aggressively sometimes cause my neighborhood opens to a highway. But the week prior to my problems, I hadnt driven it hard or anything. No reason to. Heck, the day it lost third and forth, i wasnt hard on it or anything. The day it got stuck in fifth I was being real gentle with it.

Maintenance...well, No I cant deny that Ive been a little lax on it but its cause I didnt have the cash. I know I need to replace those inner tierods, and swap out the passenger side cv axle and balljoint. But there is fluid in the transmission. I checked it today and it was right where it was

Throttle cable, never had any issues with it...and premature tire wear? None. Ive had these tires on here for a good six months and they still look brand new.

I found someone who can most likely rebuild it for me. From what Im hearing, they all (the several trans guys Ive talked to in the area) think its linkage related. Especially my toyota expert who used to have a blue tercel wagon.

Cant beat on the 78 ltd...I did and ended up with an average 5mpg for a whole tank. Its thirsty 6.6L will really sober up your driving. That, or the cost of tires.
I only drive 3miles to work everyday...and then come home for dinner. (All highway miles too). This tank should average around 10. and hopefully last two weeks.

[splatterdog]

Not saying you abused the trans specificaly. It seems your hard on cars in general. That's OK. It's yours to do with what you will. I've needlessly flogged many of my own cars. Broken shifters on two tranny's and a Ford, sounds like aggressive driving to me.

Also, 2 hours at 100 mph in a T4? Most here wouldn't even try that if they could. That has my long term speeding record doubled, that I set when I was a teen. During that period I was ridiculously hard on cars, and paid the price more than once. Not saying you will have throttle cable or tire wear problems. Just that my old driving habits had similar results as yours. On a tercel, only bad alignment will cause premature tire wear. Otherwise 62hp will preserve tire treads. And broken shifters on two tranny's and a ford, sounds like aggressive driving to me.

As far as the your cash situation. Doesn't an oil change/upgrade sound a lot more econonomical now?

Fixing the broken trans is obviously your higher priority right now. In my line of work I have to identify the cause of the failure. Unless you have very poor luck, I can only place most the blame on the owner/driver here. Don't feel bad or like I'm giving you a hard time, I'm pretty sure a T4 wouldn't have lasted me long when I was a younger. I used old Fords for punishing. I needed the extra tonnage of metal around me. The power of a big block is very corrupting too.

Good luck with the repair. I would recommend doing a little more to keep it going next time. There are only so many gearboxes left for these cars.

[Tercel_jon]

Totally understand where your coming from.

But hear me out on the Ford. The pin that keeps the shift lever in fell out somehow and when I let go of the shifter after putting it in Drive, it fell out. Simple fix. Not my problem. Plus that behemoth is babied. (for gas $$ reasons)

After looking at several Diagrams of different 5spd transmissions i think what happened to 3rd and 4th is a relatively (at least in theory) simple fix. The rod that controls those gears simply isnt moving.

As far as it being stuck in fifth. The end of the rod has broken off (I assume) and that accounts for the shifter to move about as usual.