FWD Trans lost first gear

[tercle]

I replaced the front-wheel drive 5-speed transmission on my 86 wagon about six weeks ago.
I got the extended warranty at PicknPull.
I complained about 1st and 2nd gear whining and someone said it was a bearing on the shaft that holds 1st and 2nd gears.

Friday, I had a catastrophic problem getting moving from a stoplight.
I put it into first gear.
Let out the clutch normally.
It moved a little, something crunched loudly, the car bucked, and it continued to lurch and crunch.
The crunching felt like it was from the right front axle.

I pulled over, and a few minutes later it occurred to me that maybe I could try starting out in 2nd gear.

Well, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Reverse all work OK.

I wonder how long I have before 2nd goes.
Could it be that that bearing nearest the 1st gear disintegrated?

edit:
On pg MT-18, there is a part called the REAR BEARING near 1st Gear.
But there is no bearing at the other end of the shaft, next to the 2nd Gear.
How come? What holds that end of the shaft and prevents 2nd Gear from flopping around?

[tercle]

Second gear sounds OK - so far it is quieter than it was.
The speedometer still works normally, and the speedometer drive gear is right next to the suspect bearing.

[Petros]

if you trashed the first gear set in the cluster, it would work just like you experienced, where all the other gears work normal. I would drain the gear oil and see what you get. IF you have gear teeth and metal particles I would return the trans for a warranty claim. since you have the extended warranty I guess there is no hurry, but if you do not clean out the broken trans parts you will have a good chance you could trash the rest of the trans as those metal parts circulate throughout the rest of the gear box. Either you have to rebuild the trans with replacements parts, or find another transmission.

[hberdan]

I managed to drive my car for about two or three weeks after losing first gear. Careful acceleration will get you a few days or weeks, but your tranny is toast and will only get worse.

[tercle]

5th gear is gone now.
It feels like a normal shift into 5th, but turns out it's just Nuetral.
Second gear is just as noisy as before.

So that supports your observation, hberdan.

If I had room to pull the engine and put it in the automatic wagon (which gets 300-400 miles per quart of oil), I would do it this weekend.

[dlb]

it sucks but i would remove the trans, return it since you have the warranty, and put another one in (if they have another one). since it's 2wd, it should be relatively easy to remove and replace it.

[Petros]

at this point you can run an experiment and just see how much further you will get before none of the gears work at all, of course than you are stuck wherever that happens. You will not make it any worse than it is now, junk to junk...than dust to dust..than the recycle bin.

My trans failed and I was stuck in 2nd gear once 40 miles away from home, had to drive it no faster than about 30 mph (it would go more but holding the rpm above 5k for long periods of time is just too scary). And had trouble getting up the steep roads on the last mile up to my house and the driveway. the trans was making really bad noises all the way home, but it made it. drained metal parts out plug the next day

[tercle]

After all the lost gears, is this transmission still rebuildable?

[larry mcgrath]

Tranys are generaly always rebuildable, however parts are getting realy hard to come up with,Ide take it back to the Pick-n-pull. I'de have done this the first time I hade trouble, a lot easier to explane ,than 5 months later. Larry

[Petros]

It is far easier and cheaper to just find another used trans. Picknpull is less than $200 if you pull it yourself, or wait until they have a 50 percent off sale (every other month or so). A rebuild kit is about $300 (which would not include the damage gears, you would have to find those and buy them too), and to have it rebuilt it would be about $300 or more in labor, not counting pulling it and reinstalling it.

So finding a used one is the best bet. check the pick n pull inventory for both Tacoma, Arlington and Lynnwood, one will show up. You check the quaity of the trans after you get it out by turning the input shaft by hand, and shift it through all the gears, with your fingers in the output spilnes and feel the condition of each gear. All should run smooth and quietly. Any roughness or clunks, or missing gears, it is junk.

[Petros]

I just ran across an animation of how a transmission works, very well done (looks Russian), it even shows how the sycromesh works and the clutch. You can see the sycro action. It shows the power transmission through the gears with color as it shifts through each gear. Our Tercel trans is very similar, the fwd one has a forward take off from the main shaft, this shows a conventional rwd trans, but it works the same way in the transvese transmissions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fv ... UC06M&NR=1