Transmission "frozen"

[Ellensburg]

Years ago, the manual transmission would freeze solid on my first tercel 4wd, provided the outside temperature was below 10 degrees F. I've owned dozens of cars since then - all standard - and have never heard of or seen this again.

It would get to the point where I would have to sit in the back seat and use my legs to try and force the shifter out of 4th and up into 1st so I could take off in the morning. Once it warmed up to a reasonable temperature, everything was fine.

Anyone else have this problem?

[dlb]

if there were that much water in the trans with all the gears, i imagine you'd have other problems. did you ever remove the shifter and cover to expose the linkage? i've found the chamber in which the shifter meets the linkage is prone to moisture, dirt, and corrosion, so i would guess that one or more gaskets for the chamber were destroyed and allowed a lot of water to get in and freeze in cold temps. do you still have this car?

[xirdneh]

we have had some problems in the past with very stiff shifting in the morning after a very cold night
have to remember to leave it in the gear you want the night before

[rer233]

if there were that much water in the trans with all the gears, i imagine you'd have other problems. did you ever remove the shifter and cover to expose the linkage? i've found the chamber in which the shifter meets the linkage is prone to moisture, dirt, and corrosion, so i would guess that one or more gaskets for the chamber were destroyed and allowed a lot of water to get in and freeze in cold temps. do you still have this car?

+1 dlb- i've seen the shifter well fill with water due to a split rubber shifter boot (NLA last time i checked.) Once the water gets in ,there's no place for it to go (just kinda ferments and rusts everything to hell in there.) I've seen cars that have sat for extended periods of time rust the linkage up solid. To prevent this,i drill a 3/16" hole from the well thru the case to act as a drain. i drill the hole thru one of the rear corners of the well (can't remember which side tho-it should be obvious-don't pick the wrong side and drill into the tranny internals!) I then lube the hell out of everything in there with wheelbearing grease-your problems should be over. BTW you might want to replace the shifter bushing while you're in there.

Good Luck!

[Ellensburg]

dlb - While that car is long gone, I think about it on cold mornings occasionally and have always wondered what the problem was. It wasn't water, or at least the shifter didn't act like it was water. It was almost like the shifter was stuck in rubber the way it moved.

[dlb]

hmmmm. maybe there was a ton of dirt and corrosion along with water, which made a mud in the shifter/linkage chamber, and the mud froze? i dunno. curious.

[Petros]

the linkage was likely frozen from water in the linkage chamber, the rubber part is actually in the shift lever. where the shift lever gets larger towards the bottom it has a rubber sleeve inside it to isolate the engine and trans vibrations from your hand. If the linkage is frozen solid and you push on the stick hard yo will feel that rubber squishing around so it feels like it was stuck in something soft.