Transmission

What is up with my transmission... I hit a deer a few weeks back... ever since then, my transmission has had problems going in reverse... then 3rd gear would pop out, I thought that was synchro-related. I had already replaced the clutch master cylinder, so I looked at the slave. The boot was cracked and the cylinder was leaking. So I replaced that, but to no avail. I couldn't get it to go in either. Upon closer inspection this last weekend, I noticed that when shifting into reverse, the reverse lights never came on, and even with the clutch depressed, the vehicle would stop moving. Almost as though it was not fully in gear. I dogged the car over the weekend, mainly because a friend with his souped up prelude (oxymoron) wanted to race... Then sunday, I was doing a/b 110, and came around a corner, I went to downshift into 4th, but it was gone... all the car did was rev, no acceleration. I put the car into 5th and it began to accelerate... downshifted to 4th and it kicked out, then I tried 3rd, and that worked... it hadn't for weeks. Upon arriving at a friend's house, I wanted to try reverse... I saw that the lights came on and the car jumped into reverse... that shocked me... Now if I play with the shifter, I can get reverse to work, and third and fourth gears seem to selectively work... most of the time, if it kicks out of one it will go into the other... it seems to me that something inside the transmission is sliding around, but I don't know anything about transmissions... Any help would be greatly appreciated...
-mikelb

Yeah the impact could have damaged your transmission's internals, think of it as taking your transmission and slamming it on the ground...somethings gonna break.

The third gear synchro sounds like it might be bad, reverse gear doesn't use a synchro so it's possible the gear or shaft is damaged. From that much information, you might need to buy a new transmission.

When you said 4th gear was gone, sounds like your clutch was slipping or not engaging. Can you get into 4th gear now? And how are gears 1 and 2?

1st and 2nd are fine... so is fifth... but third and fourth work every now and then... the car will kick out of third... so I go to fourth... then it kicks out of fourth, when I shift back into third (leaving fourth) it usually works... then I shift to fifth (skipping fourth)... reverse has been working somewhat more regularly... but I did have a problem with it leaving from lunch... the whole thing a/b it feeling like it was not completely in gear, and even though the clutch was in the car stopped moving... the way I remedied this was to push it into reverse, without depressing the clutch... this made the car jump... and gears grinded, but only momentarily... and I noticed that with even the slightest push the car will now move from third gear (without pressing clutch)... I have thought that maybe the impact did this, as it broke many other things on the car... endlinks on the swaybar, mounts for radiator, headlights, bumper, hood, etc...

Could be internals, or the linkage could be messed up.

Well if the impact was hard enough to break your sway bar links, then it was probably hard enough to damage some internals. Everything is pointing towards something internally damaged in the transmission. The most I could tell you is to buy a good used one off ebay or a junkyard, unless you know how to replace synchro's and other internals. Of course if it doesn't bug you that much to shift from 2nd to 5th then thats always an option.

Ok... not to ressurect this thread... but I think I may have found something of interest... the second collar (3-4th gears) was damaged.. as well as the pushrod... that's what was keeping it from engaging into the gears... the synchros are pretty worn... but still functional... the 3rd pushrod (5th and reverse) was bent... Some odd things happened when I hit the deer... but oh well... I found a place in Goldsboro, NC that will do the complete rebuild, with upgraded internals, for $1750... I will be takgin the car out there in a few weeks... I'll keep you posted on what happens... Thanks for all the help...

ya, if the collar and pushrod are damaged, then most likely you have other damage as well. i have my transmission apart right now on my work bench b/c i'm putting an LSD insert in, and its pretty clear that since the gears and everything else are so tightly fit together, that other damage is almost a given. smart route on the rebuild!

as for rebuilding it, you might check out Team Rip Engineering (www.teamrip.com). they specialize in DSMs and the 3/S trannies. (However, i don't know if you have a VR4 or SL/Base--they no longer rebuild the AWD mtx.) but they do offer a wide variety of services and options for upgraded internals, even taller 5th gears.

if i ever need to rebuild my transmission (God forbid i ever hit a deer!), then i'm gonna have TeamRip do it. i think their price is quite comparable to the place you found.

Yeah, thanks for that link... hadn't looked at them... well ,I'd prolly go with them... if they weren't so far away (I'm in Rocky Mount, NC ~40 miles from Jennings in Goldsboro)... and I'm kinda in a bind... b/c my other two cars are at the house right now... not running... I'm prolly just gonna part out the 95 Escort... and may rebuild the 90 Corolla...(great gas mileage, super light...)...I haven't found anyone around here as cheap as Jennings anyway... and there's a 50k mile warranty... they also do the upgraded internal... they do that at no charge... and on the automatics they require a new torque converter... but they do quality work from what I hear... Thanks again...