HELP! Transmission stuck in second gear!

[gthompson97]

Ok, I have a big big problem. On my buddies 95 Eclipse N/T, 5 speed we had taken out his transmission to fix some noises and now that we have it back in and everything put together, we went to see if it still made the noises, which it doesn't, but now the car is stuck in either second or fourth gear. It will not come out. The clutch is working because when the car is up in the air he can let off the pedal and the wheels spin and then when he presses it they stop, but it will not come out of 2nd (or 4th) gear. What could be causing this? I was thinking maybe the shifter cables are gettin stuck on something but it seems like something is jammed inside the transmission. I need some major help, and I need it fast.

I don't really feel like tearing out the transmission again if I have to so I figured I would check and see if anyone has had this problem also before I tear apart the transmission again.

[EclipseRST]

depending on how hard he was shifting he probably bent a shift fork... or bent one of the shift fork guides. Most likely means you need to pull the tranny again and have it rebuilt.

But check the linkages first! No use going through all the trouble if its something small and stupid like that!

[gthompson97]

it worked perfect before we took out the tranny though. all we did was tighten the bar that the slave cylinder pushes on (can't remember the name) and also replace the throw out bearing and then put it back it and now it won't come out of second.

[EclipseRST]

Tighten the clutch fork?

Did you bleed the clutch?

[gthompson97]

yeah, theres that little ball that the clutch fork kinda clamps onto and the little peg thingys were bent out so we bent them back in to tighten it back up cause it made some serious vibrating noises. yeah we bled the clutch too. the clutch works fine, it just won't come out of second.

[EclipseRST]

So did you drain the tranny fluid at any point? Like when you took the half shafts out, and did you put any fluid back in?

[gthompson97]

yepp, we put everything back together. put the 4.2 liters back in it that came out when we took out the half shafts and everything. everything is back to where it was when we took the transmission out, except for it being stuck in second gear. is there something that could have gotten jammed when we put it back together, cause we had the clutch out and the housing off the tranny and everything. would there be any way the gears could be jammed or something?

[EclipseRST]

4 LITERS CAME OUT!!!!!!! Jesus man... I bet thats part of the problem. There is only suppose to be 2.1L of gear oil in it. (75-90 weight)

Drain some of it out, run it like that for a little while to get everything moving, then try to get it out of gear. Put it up on jack stands or on a lift and while giving it gas (speeding up) push on the shifter without pressing the clutch in. It should pop right out.

[gthompson97]

yeah your right, it's 2. i couldn't remember, i thought it was 4 i don't knwo why. but we put just a hair over 2 quarts back in because there's .9 something liters in a quart so we put just a little over 2 quarts in, exactly what it calls for. my bad, sorry about the mixup. we also tried giving it some gas without pressing on the clutch and pushing on the shifter to get it to pop out and it won't move, it's solid as a rock.

[EclipseRST]

Hmm. Well check all of the linkages... If nothing is there you can try one more thing, push the clutch in and push it backwards then pop the clutch. Then try pulling it out of gear, if that doesnt work, try pushing it forward and poping the clutch. If that doesnt work then you have no choice but to pull the tranny again. Good luck.

[gthompson97]

yeah we tried everything i could think of. popping the clutch while revving it with no pressure on the shifter, and then while pulling on the shifter and nothing. i'm gonna check the linkages and stuff like that and i hope that's the problem. thanks for all the help jake.

[1stGenRocks]

disconnect the shift linkages from the trans and make sure that the cables move frelly when they are disconnected. this is to make sure the problem is internal and not something in the linkage.

[AlteredIdentity]

update: we took out the transmission again today and when i pulled off the bell housing i found that one of the shift rail bushings was mangled and wouldn't let the rails move so that's why it was stuck in gear and wouldn't come out.

[EclipseRST]

I had a feeling it had to do with the shift fork and rails!

[gthompson97]

yepp that was it. we got everything back together and i'll have an update tomorrow on how everything works. thanks for all your help everyone.