Difficulty shifting into reverse (manual trans.)

[pianobrooks]

I have a '91 Loyale with 150k miles, and I'm a novice auto mechanic.

 

Sometimes it is difficult to shift the manual transmission into reverse. This is an issue whether the car is running or not. It used to happen rarely, but has been occurring with increasing frequency lately. Usually moving the shifter in and out of some of the other gears and then coming back to reverse helps to solve the problem. But sometimes it can take several minutes of fiddling to finally get it into reverse.

 

Is this likely a problem within the gearbox itself, or something in the linkage that I might be able to investigate on my own?

 

I'm worried that if it continues to get worse I will eventually end up in a situation where I won't be able to get into reverse at all?

 

Thanks in advance for replies.

[SuBrat84]

How much travel is there in your clutch pedal before it starts to feel "tight?" You might be able to adjust it a little bit.. Does the shifter have any play it or is it pretty stable still? Also, next time it's giving you trouble.. stick it first and roll forward a couple of inches.. it may be the reverse gear is just a touch "out of synch."

[ChuckPT]

I found this old thread helpful so I thought I'd contribute with my experience. I have a 1985 BRAT 4mt. Reverse slowly became useless. It felt like the stick shift couldn't move far enough right to access reverse. I took the trim and shift boot off and found that the stick was running into the 4wd linkage. The stick had two bends in it jogging it to the right ~ 1 inch so I cut the bends out and welded it straight in hopes that this would allow access to reverse. At the same time I put a wrench on the 14mm bolt connecting the linkage to the shifting shaft going into the trans and tried twisting it to the left (drivers side) hoping to get the 1-2° of angle needed. After reassembly I have reverse! 

Hope this helps keep someone else's classic mini truck on the road!

Edited Tuesday at 04:28 PM by ChuckPT

[el_freddo]

Different model to the OP with your brat @ChuckPT - and the easier fix is to take the slop out of the bracket between the selector shaft and the gear stick. 

This is usually achieved by removing the bracket, putting a horizontal slot in it and drilling out the flogged retainer pin hole on the bracket and the selector shaft (usually with both in position from under the vehicle), then replace the retainer pin with a high tensile nut and bolt arrangement clamped down real tight. 

No more shifter slop after this mod. VERY common. 

As for the OP with the ‘91 Loyale, that issue would be with the clutch adjustment or a shot spigot bearing I reckon. Shame they never updated the thread.

Cheers 

Bennie