Yeah if it doesn't have the tab chances are it doesn't need the spring. does the shifter feel floppy at all when its in neutral? Without the spring the shifter will just fall over towards the drivers side. If it stays positively between 3-4 then it has the internal spring and doesn't need the one on the linkage.

Must have an internal spring, bounces back to center line nicely.

Ah crap....today on the highway at 60 mph I noticed that when in 5th (only 5th) and I give gas the stick moves back. Driving 10 miles it popped out of 5th about 6 times. If I hold the shifter there is a lot of force needed to keep it in place. I guess I could wedge a 2X4 in there when I cruise in 5th LOL.

 

Then when I pulled into the drive and did a slow hard turn I got torque bind. Almost like an old GL I had that I left in 4X4 (not AWD). All the tires are the same size and inflated properly.

 

I'm guessing the nut on the end of the shaft is loose and the center diff are bad?

 

:banghead:Crap, think I need to take this tranny back and get another? Crap crap crap....

Did you tighten the pitch mount? If the transmission moves too much the linkage can pull it out of gear.

Kinda doubt that's the problem but it's worth a check.

Possible someone was resting their hand on the shifter when cruising and wore out the bushings on the shift fork. Now it doesn't go into 5th gear far enough to stay engaged.

That or the synchro hub is damaged (someone grinding gears like woah) or just completely worn out.

 

If the main shaft bearing was allowing the shaft to walk back and forth enough to pop it out of gear there would be all kinds of racket when the shaft was spinning. I don't see there being much chance of the stake nut on the end coming loose unless someone had the trans apart and removed the nut (to replace the MSB perhaps) and just didn't get it tight enough, doubtful of that being the issue here.

 

The TB, just more evidence that the car that trans came from was not properly maintained. It had mismatched tires, and the owner that would rest their hand on the shifter. :-p

Drove it up to the pass today, only popped out once, weird, seems to have gotten better again.

 

I'm going to pull the spring and ball see if it's installed. The kickback/rear mount are all tight and new bushings were put in the linkage.

 

I can live with the center diff for now. Damn, we'll see how far this goes and then maybe i can get a good tranny somewhere.

I think there is really something wrong with the 5th/R gear. Now to get it into R I have to pull REAL hard and slip the clutch grinding the gears into position. Sometimes it pops out of R gear. Then to get back to neutral its real hard.

Once in N I can use 1-4th just fine.

 

5th still pops out - a lot more now.

 

I guess anyone have advice? Pull tranny and check the nut? Or get my money back and get a new tranny?

Got warranty? Use it, get another trans.