[shannonlujan]

Why is my shifter loose and feel very disconnected?

Is this normal? What can I do to fix this?

Can this be damaging to my car?


Taken and editedfrom a previous post:

THE SYMPTOMS: It will start out with a loose feeling shifter that has a lot of play and wiggles even while in gear. This will eventually cause internal damage to the transaxle if igored. (I got my car with bad bushings and it lasted 6 months before it got stuck in gear and about 4 months before the first problems. If you have bad shifter bushings check your manual, crawl under your car and order and replace them. At a minimum replace the four on the change control rod. I replaced the boots and ball seats in the shifter as well.

If you being to have tranny problems like this: 3rd not going in at first, but no grinding... relocating or floating gears, for example sqeaky noises in 5th or reverse relocating it self this might be your problem.

THE CAUSE: One cause is mileage and wear and tear but what seems to be the MAIN catalyst is the fact that I had driven it (and previous owner too) for a long time with bad shifter bushings. I Believe this caused the premature problems. IF YOU HAVE A LOOSE SHIFTER REPLACE ALL BUSHINGS AND BALL SEATS IMMEDIATLEY IN THE SHIFTER AND LINKAGE RODS. DO NOT SLAM GEARS LIKE THIS! DRIVE SOFTLY! When you have no shifter bushings the internal shift gate takes a abeathing with every movement of the shifter, until eventually, the gates bolts work themselves loose. Then if you're unlucky something will get jammed up.

THE INTERNAL PROBLEM: Inside at the end of the internal change control rod (checkyour manuals) there is an internal shiftgate bolted down on the tranny case by like 3 small bolts. It keeps your H pattern in check. Except of course when its only being held on by 1 bolt. The other two worked their way loose (I'll tell you how in a sec) and basically it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack when shifting. Luckily the bolts were cought by my magnet. anyways the change mechanism got hung up between two shift rods kinda and was completley out of the shift pattern. Basically, by trying to pull the stick out of first i was also trying to engage 4th at the same time kinda. Its hard to explain but it was STUCK.

TO FIX:You'll have to remove the transaxle and open it up. I reccomend fixing the problem with bolt sealent and also rebuilding with a rebuild kit of some type, might as well while your in there. So if you wanna fix it go ahead, other wise buy a new tranny or atleast take yours out and take it to a pro.