I have an 88GL 3 door, with an 88 EA82T out of a RX. It just got stuck in 1st gear and won't come out. The shifter linkage as far as I can tell is intact all the way into the tranny. Can anyone help?

maybe a broken clutch cable? need more details. can you drive it? are you stranded? Do you know how to shift without a clutch?

check the clutch cable and adjustment for sure.

 

try starting and driving the car to see if it'll shift. you can start the car in gear. of course all disclaimers apply...i mean, find an open and safe area not crawling with liberals, surfers, tree huggers, reality stars, or emissions stands.

 

anyway, try to get it started and driving in first and then see if you can reve match it to shift or get it out of gear.

 

i once had an XT6 do this and it ended up needing a new clutch. this was before i ever replaced a clutch so i dont' know anything except the thing would not come out of gear at all. a shop replaced the clutch (not sure what all components) and it was fixed.

Edited May 11, 200916 yr by grossgary

I can push in the clutch and the car will roll freely. I haven't tried rev matching to shift it. The shift nob moves freely between gears, but its like its not even connected to the tranny.

Any strange noises or shifter suddenly feeling different when this happened or was it just a situation like - it worked yesterday when parked and now it doesn't.

Well it starts and runs and drives fine in first. My buddy was driving it and he was just shifting into 2nd from 1st and nothing happened. It wasn't a harsh shift either. All the sudden the shift nob just came free and the car was stuck in first. I removed the rubber boot and the linkage is all there. It looks good under the car as well. I am afraid to go into the transmission but i think that might be the problem.

 

If anyone can help it'd be greatly appreciated.

yeah something is broke between the shifter and clutch. maybe the clutch fork or one of the springs clips ont he throw out bearing let loose? unless you can find a linkage/cable problem it sounds like a clutch job is needed.

 

you sure the clutch cable didn't break? is it inside a sheating that might make it hard to see, or it's all moving fine at the bellhousing?

I'm actually away at college now, but I'll ask my buddy to take a look. Hopefully it just needs a clutch job. thanks.

The clutch is working isn't it?

 

Sounds like inside the box to me, probably a shift fork.

Yeah the clutch works, it engages and the car rolls freely. Can someone explain the shift fork to me?

Inside there are some sliding hubs that lock the gears to the shaft to engage a gear, they sort of slide over the gears. There are forked/fingered sort of castings that are fitted to shifter shafts, and those fingers slip over the hubs to slide them along to engage gear. The gearchange lever you move goes inside and chooses one of three shift shafts when you move the lever left and right, then when you push forwards it slides the shaft which carries the fingers which push the hub onto the gear.

 

The cast fingers are a bit deicate and they are only spring/roll pinned to the shift shaft, so, they are vunerable to breakage on most makes and models. It could be the pin, the finger, or the end of the shaft where the gear lever chooses which shaft.

 

Try and find a manual online for it and it will have all the pictures.

I found a FSM for the suby online, but it seems to be missing that section. How difficult is it to fix this? Do I have to open up the transmission, or is this fix more accessible. I would love to be able to fix this myself, if possible.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=98796

 

The 1st pic in that thread shows the innards of a tranny. Shifter rails are at the bottom, shifter forks can be found if you follow the rails thru the tranny.

 

And yes, the tranny would need to be opened if repairs are needed for the shifter forks.