Stuck in 5th gear, shifter in neutral

[frostvectron]

Looks like I boned something pretty bad. I was torquing down my crankshaft pulley bolt and had the car in 5th gear with the ebrake up. After I was done, I pulled the shifter back to neutral (without pressing the clutch... it was late and I was lazy and stupid). I wanted to turn the crank over with a wrench by hand to make sure it was rotating well and found that it was behaving like it was still stuck in gear....

Now the shifter is in neutral position but it feels like it's in 5th gear. If I lift the rear wheels off the ground and try to spin them (with ebrake off) they don't spin freely. If I press in on the clutch and spin the rear wheels they turn freely. The shifter will go into gears 1-4, but it doesn't slide over to the right for 5th/Reverse.

Any ideas on what happened or where to go from here? I'd like to not drop the trans if I can help it.... need to pull the shifter out and open up the control box and see what it's like in there. It is the 71C trans as well.

[frostvectron]

Hey guys, got the shifter off and here's what it looks like...

Am I boned?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRWLyjH3Swo

[shromy]

time for a rebuilt or used trans

[Axel kain]

popping it out of gear without the clutch really isnt a big deal at all, especially with the engine off. only thing I can think is that this was likely to happen regardless, and you just happened to have it occur at this time. I havent been inside a 71C yet, but can only guess that the fork or mechanism that controls it is jammed up. likely will need to either open it up, or replace to free. I'd try leaving the brake off, and rear wheels up, and rotate the engine, or maybe crank it, and see if maybe something frees.

[frostvectron]

Hmm, yeah. My idea didn't work... even with side pin out it is still stuck.

Axel, I thought so too, but I think the killer detail might have been that was torquing the crank pulley bolt, which probably binded everything up... stupid to just manhandle the shifter after that. I tried various combinations of rotating things but it seems pretty solidly in gear.

An odd thing though: I have been noticing a weird buzz/vibration coming from the mid-section of the car before I took things apart and borked it. I wonder if that was an indication of something failing in there. I thought it was the driveshaft, but I removed it and re-did the u-joints, but it didn't go away. I then thought it was the diff, so I removed it and reshimmed everything and still no change.

Welp, am making preparations to drop the trans...

[frostvectron]

Alright guys, I got the trans out. I am trying to separate the case from the internals, but I am having trouble removing this roll pin attaching the shifter linkage to the striker arm. Any ideas how to drive this pin out? I can get the pin to move a good 1/4" or so, but it seem to get stuck and I don't want to over-hammer it in fear of breaking something.

[frostvectron]

Booom, got it out. Sure enough the 5-R gear shift was engaged but the control arm thing was not in that fork... no clue how it happened. Everything looked okay visually (not sure what to look for). I pulled it out and now it seems normal... everything seems nice and tight. Reverse gear a little chewed up but that is supposedly normal. I guess it gets buttoned back up and reinstalled!

[88sinZ]

Slap it back on and use some good fluid/additive

[frostvectron]

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I got the trans back together and dry shifted it a bunch, seems fine now... I have some Redline MT90 that'll go in. Fingers crossed!

[frostvectron]

All back together and she shifts okay. Shifting into reverse the first time felt a little sticky but it seems pretty fine now.

[88sinZ]

Sounds good man, these 71C's are kind of clunky as-is anyways. Time to keep an eye out fo a 30A