beaker

94 pickup / 4x4 manual / 3.0

Ok somethin really wierd happened today. Everything was running fine, no signs of any gear or tranny malfunction. I stoped at a light, put it into neutral, then when the light turned green I tried to put it into first and it seemed like there was no gear there. At first i thought it was my clutch, but no. The shifter will rotate in any direction and not go into any gear. I towed it home so i could pull the shifter. Unfortunately for me, the shifter assembly all looks normal.

Any thoughts?

abeD85flatbed

Ok, so the names of the parts escape me, but I will try to explain what it could be, and is easily identified. If you pull the shift tower off the top of the case underneath it will be a shift rail with a cast part bolted to it, this is what the bottom of the shift tower engages to select between the rest of the lower shift rails and gears down it he case. If the bolt that holds the cast 'socket' to this top rail comes loose, I honestly don't know how it could there should be a small tab that keeps it in place, it will be unable to move the rest of the rails inside the transmission. if it has come loose and the bolt is in sight, tighten it up and consider yourself lucky.

GreenFlames

check your slave cylinder

beaker

Unfortunately, that bolt is tight and the cast part moves with the shift rail all the way forward and back. If it was anything to do with the clutch, shouldn't I be able to tell something was not right with the pedal? It feels normal.

McKenna

I had the same issue with my 93' XJ. I would run round' town and come to a light, throw it in neutral and just before it turned green I'd try and put it into 1st and it wouldn't go into any gear. I had to turn it off and restart it and then it would work, it turned out to be the slave cylinder, I also flushed the fluid and switched Gear Fluids and worked flawlessly after that.

Good Luck

beaker

When you had that problem, did your stick move in all directions as if the gears were not even there? It seems like its moving the full distance.

McKenna

The shifter was is in the Neutral position and I could move it to all the gear positions but the transmission would not allow me to put it in any gears and would grind if I tried (This was w/ an AX15 Trans as well). So are you saying that you are able to move your shifter into all gear positions but its actually not in gear ?

Have you changed your fluid or done any clutch or trans related maintenance lately ?

beaker

i did my clutch about 2 months ago. had some problems with the fluid line and replaced the flex pipe next to the firewall. since then it has worked without any problems. I have yet to change any fluids in the tranny, over due for sure.
I will check again but i'm pretty sure it was moving into all gear positions without any hesitation. It literally felt like all the gears just went away.

The slave cylinder is only 12 bucks so i'm going to change that out and the fluids and see what happens. Not sure what i will have to do next if that doesn't work.

thanks for the help

McKenna

When you swapped in the new clutch did it you install a new throwout bearing & resurface or change the flywheel ? If you get it up & rolling again, I'd schedule a free inspection w/ a Transmission shop like AAMCO or a local shop. Couldn't hurt & you could take it from there.

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

I would be willing to bet something is hung in the bellhousing. If the shift rail was intact. Input shafts don't just fall apart.

87desertyota

i had a similar problem only i couldn't get mine into gear. turned out to be the new clutch was defective. seeming as though you can get them into where a gear should be and its doing nothing, i would start with the slave cylinder and move to the master if that doesn't do it. if that doesn't do it, looks like your gonna have to pull the tranny and investigate in the bellhousing. and dont take this the wrong way but are you sure you put the disc facing the right way. ive been told when you do that they work for a little bit but will eventually stop working. best of luck.

beaker

did a complete clutch kit, throwout, pilot, resurface.... everything went smooth and i'm pretty dam sure i did it right. I'm just a home mech though, only thing i know about cars is what i have to fix. I'm guna pull the slave this weekend, hopefully thats the only thing wrong. if not, the tranny is comin down

tried4x2signN

delete...


If you can pump it and get tit to work, 9 times outta 10 it's the slave cylinder going out.

As a troubleshoot I'd first check the shifter bushing, then replace the probably overdue clutch master and slave cyl.

...Using factory AISIN parts of course.

muddpigg

iTrader: (1)

Bad slave is not going to keep the pressure on the though out bearing and keep the clutch disengaged. Just not joing to happen. A poor adjustment could be the case as the clutch wears the pressure off the slave isn't being released with the full travel of the clutch pedal. But if you didn't mess with the the threaded adjustment by disconnecting the pedal then I doubt that is the case. You could have done everything right as even brand new parts fail even when they are branded with Aisin or Secco.

beaker

slave and master check out fine. looks like the tranny is comin down. if it's not apparent right away what the problem is, i think i'll just throw in a used tranny. not sure i really want to tear into the guts to find out the problem. used tranny with 70k mi is about 350 locally.