out of the blue today my 84 4x4 GL S/W stuck in 3rd gear. IT WILL NOT COME OUT! anybody have any ideas? I dont see much of a linkage...Im thinking maybe I bent a shift fork? it has been getting a little tough to shift lately. thanks

My Brat sticks in 4th sometimes - you have to get the car moving a little bit, and it will come out. Don't know if that's your problem or not. Try moving the car - put all 4 corners on jack stands to relieve any potential binding - see if that does it. Also - you did check the tranny fluid right? If it turns out to be gummed up cause of a lack of fluid, or bad fluid, try redline gear oil - really good stuff - fixed my shift problems within a few hundred miles.

 

GD

different loads dont seem to effect it. 2wd/4wd/4wdL wont budge! I cut off the boot and I can see the shaft moving slightly at the trans housing. tapped it with a hammer too, but nothing will free it up. I got the car for 300 bucks so it may be time for the junkyard. I just thought maybe this was something others had experienced. thanks though!

I had a similar problem on my 80 hatchback where it would not shift into 4th. It turn out that on of the synchro inserts (the part the keeps the synchro aligned) had fell out of the synchro. The shift for could be the problem but I don't think it's bent because Subaru used cast iron shift forks until the EA82s came out.

i've got the same problem with my 82 4WD. the stick feels like it is in the position of neutral (as far as where it is vertically) with no horizontal movement. howver it is definately stuck in third. maybe it is time for a new tranny?

 

i also thought this might be a somewhat common problem.

last year my 1981 wagon dual range did that, what had happened was that the transmission 3 gear had seazed to the shaft inside the transmission, even busted rear berring apart inside trany, cold day to heavy of gear oil, i guess... had to replace trany, well, i took two and made one....

3rd/4th gear binding seems to be a common problem with EA81 manual trannies (at least the 4wd ones). Same has happened on my 86 Brat. I have a spare tranny I am planning on swapping in. In the meantime, when it locks up, I just shut the engine down (AFTER stopping), shift it out of gear, then restart. Sometimes it doesn't want to shift into gear after restarting so then I shut down, place in first gear, start engine with clutch depressed. Car bucks at start but it seems to free up the tranny.