I went to look at a 97 Legacy brighton today. It was a 5mt. Hes letting it go for scrap value which around here isnt much right now. He said he drove down from VT to MA for thanksgiving and the trans wasnt engaging properly said he thought the clutch was gone.

 

I started it up and aside from a minor exhaust leak it started and ran ok. I tried putting it in gear and found the shifter would move freely left to right (neutral) but would not move into ANY gear. (i didn't try to strong-arm it in)

 

Is this an indication of shifter bushings being bad and his engagement issue was actually the trans not being fully in gear? The car is a rust bucket and I pose the question mostly to satisfy my cuiosity and improve my diagnostic skills not so much because I want to buy the car.

 

UNLESS someone here is looking for a cheap 2.2. I could buy and palletize for shipment. We have a loading dock where I work. Then I could scrap whats left of the car.

Could you push the car?

 

I am guessing the inkage is broken or jammed.

 

nipper

it does roll. it was parked on a slight grade and it rolled a little when I took the P-brake off.

OK so we can rule out it being stuck in two gears. Of course its possible it is stuck in two gears AND it has a busted internal transfer gear or something (i think the exact term is thingy).

 

nipper

Sounds like the clutch is toast, or the clutch cable is. I'm betting that I could get it in gear. I had my clutch cable break on me and I drove the car home. You just have to shut the engine off when you come to a stop, then it is a question of knowing what one tach reading in one gear is in the next gear, and modulating the engine speed so it slips into the gear you want. I could upshift and downshift by the time I got home (about ten miles of city traffic). . .Try putting the car in first gear as you let slightly off of the parking brake to see if it slips in. Also look at where the clutch pedal sits. If it is all te way to the floor, make sure it is not simply really badly adjusted. I had one guy swear to me that his transmission was toast because he could not get into any gear. We went and pulled a tranny for him and when I got to his place with the "new" tranny, I took one look under the hood and fixed his problem on the spot. . . . I could have saved him three hundred dollars by going to the car first. I still feel bad about that. . . .

 

Oh, and his problem was that the clutch was adjusted so loose that it was never disengagng from the flywheel. This may be what your person is expreiencing. . .

Does it shift with the engine off?

 

nipper

I went to look at a 97 Legacy brighton today. It was a 5mt. Hes letting it go for scrap value which around here isnt much right now. He said he drove down from VT to MA for thanksgiving and the trans wasnt engaging properly said he thought the clutch was gone.

 

I started it up and aside from a minor exhaust leak it started and ran ok. I tried putting it in gear and found the shifter would move freely left to right (neutral) but would not move into ANY gear. (i didn't try to strong-arm it in)

 

Is this an indication of shifter bushings being bad and his engagement issue was actually the trans not being fully in gear? The car is a rust bucket and I pose the question mostly to satisfy my cuiosity and improve my diagnostic skills not so much because I want to buy the car.

 

UNLESS someone here is looking for a cheap 2.2. I could buy and palletize for shipment. We have a loading dock where I work. Then I could scrap whats left of the car.

Does sound like linkage -The clutch on the 2.2 motor is made quite robust (hard to kill). Also (on my 97 wagon) it is possible to get at least one of the gears without to much shoving with the engine off.

before i worked on my own cars i had this happen to my XT6. wouldn't go into any gear at all - engine running or not, clutch cable/pedal seemed to operate fine. i don't know what happened but a basic clutch job fixed the problem.