No reverse

[nissanwalker]

All of a sudden with no warning my stock 96 S-14 will not go into reverse. I searched all the forums and there are lots of folks with the same problem but no solutions. All forward gears work fine and pumping the clutch and shifting through other gears does not help it go into reverse. The shifter doesn't seem loose but could it be as simple as the shifter bushings, or did I lose the reverse fork in the transmission. Any ideas?

Jim

[NISTECH]

http://www.nissaninfiniticlub....17316

[Toahk]

Mine does this once and a while, it seems I can toss it in first then quickly put it in reverse (with the car on and clutch in) and it works fine, its worth a shot.

[nissanwalker]

Thanks Nistech, I disassembled the shifter and removed all the bushings including the main base pivot bushing and everything looks good with only minor wear (very little slop). I inserted a dowel tightly and moved the transmission to the full reverse position. I then released the clutch slowly and it made slight contact with the gears and pushed the linkage back to neutral. If I hold the linkage in the reverse position and slowly release the clutch I can get the transmission to grind (I did this very lightly and didn't attemnpt to force it in). If I had to guess it's almost like the gear that would engage reverse has slipped up the shaft so that when it is in the full reverse position it is not quite far enough to mesh just enough to barely grind. Having not been in one of these trannies I'm not sure what exactly it looks like and whether that is possible? The car has 80k on the odometer with no abuse. All forward gears shift perfectly.

Any ideas

[NISTECH]

ok you shifted it from the lever inside is what i think your saying? If this is so and it its grinding but not fully enguaging my thought is the roll pin through the rod and fork has sheered off. do you have experiance breaking down a manual trans at all? if you do you could fix this and have it rollin with like 2 days down time max. 1st day would be remove, tear down,find and repair, reassemble, and be starting on reinstall. this is dependant on how focused you are on the job and how long of a day you wanna spend on the project. Personally with air tools and a hoist I could have this trans out of the car and tore down in less then 2 hrs. the whole job would take me less then 4 1/2 to 5 hrs. But being you'll be working on the ground and useing hand tools I am guessing probably approx 8 hrs hands on time.

[nissanwalker]

I have some homegrown transmission experience, my track car is a 3rd gen RX-7 and a few months ago I replaced the clutch and the 5th gear synchro. I have full car length ramps that I use to work under the cars.

That being said, given my description you think I need to tear it down? Is it a job that requires the removal of the entire transmission, so I may as well do the clutch which has 80K on it?

Thanks Jim

[NISTECH]

yea transmission out completely go ahead with the clutch thing. Have a source to get another tran from though just incase you see something seriously wrong in there that would require more then just reinstalling a roll pin. if you start getting in to gear replacement or something along that line you are going to need a hydrolic press to get the shafts out of the center support. and cost wise on gears and bearings that would well exceed your cost on a used trans.

[nissanwalker]

After seeing on the diagrams that 5th and reverse were on the same shaft I went out and moved the car in 5th a few feet and then stopped and shifted into reverse without a problem. I then took it on an errand and have not been able to get it into reverse no matter what gear I shift from.

So unless I'm missing something obvious I guess I have to go into the transmission but correct me if I'm wrong since I was able to get it into reverse one more time it doesn't seem like the shift fork but rather a broken synchro?

[NISTECH]

I do not believe reverse has a syncro. regardless your problem lies in the trans so you will need to disassemble it to find the problem.

[nissanwalker]

Thanks, I'll post what I find, when I sleep off the turkey I should get it out tomorrow.

[nissanwalker]

The transmission came out without a hitch. The clutch is gone, so this is timely. Do you have any clutch recomendations? The car is stock and it's a daily driver so cheapbut quality is what I'm after. Clutchcity has an Exedy for $110 with TO bearing, alignment tool and pilot.

My second question is that I have an oil leak at the front of the oil pan at the main seal and was wonder with the transmission out if I could lift the engine enough to get the pan off and reseal it or does the engine need to be removed?

Thanks for all your help.

[NISTECH]

with the trans out is the best time to do the oil pan reseal. you will have clearence to come back with it as your lowering it. You still need to lif the engine a little or lower the rack to help it drop a little further.

As far as clutch goes check on a factory clutch kit. they are pretty reasonable. try the wholesale parts link to the left.

[nissanwalker]

Well here's the culprit, broken shift fork.

My question is whether this is just something that happens or does it mean something else caused this? The rest of the transmission looks in fine shape.

On the pan seal are there seals in the front and rear or is there just a bead of RTV?

Thanks, you've been a great help.

Jim

[NISTECH]

just make sure you can slide it into the gears manually with minimal force to assure nothing is binding that could cause this. if all seems ok i would say you could replace the fork and run with it.

the pan is flat mounted all the way around silicone sealer is all you need to reseal it. recommend you replace the fron crank seal too they tend to leak when they get old. its in the front cover you just need to remove the front crank pulley to gain access to it. then pop it out and install a new one with a thin layer of silicone sealer on the outside edge of the seal where it presses against the front cover.

[nissanwalker]

You anticipated my next question. Upon further inspection of my oil leak it seems as if it is coming from the front seal behind where the main pulley is attached. From your previous post it seems like I can remove the crank pulley and replace that front seal without removing the front cover. Does the pulley come off with the large bolt in the middle or the small bolts around the outer ring.

[nissanwalker]

ps what do you think about JUN Lightweight flywheels?

[NISTECH]

no opinion on mods from me I have done very little research in the area of modifications and weather they serve any real purpose. Yea you remove the large 27mm?? bolt to remove the pully. you will need to loan a chain wrench from an auto parts store like auto zone. you need it to hold the crank pulley still while you remove the bolt. then a couple pry bars behind it to help pry it off. place them so they are directly across from each other behind the pulley and walk the pry bars back and forth till it walks off. not much pressure is needed to do this. also when you remove the bolt take the washer off it and put it back in 2 or 3 threads. It will catch the pulley so it doesnt go slammin down on the ground on ya.

[nissanwalker]

I replaced the fork and the clutch and reinstalled everything and still no reverse! When it was apart I made sure that the gears moved smoothly but unfortunately I didn't try it when it was back together before I reinstalled it. Tomorrow it comes back out and I'm not looking forward to that. The reverse gear had some rough teeth but nothing that I thought was excessive. I'm not sure what to do next?

The other thing that was a real bear is how to get the transmission shaft into the clutch/flywheel hole. The tunnel prevents you from lifting the transmission high enough to get the shaft started. It's hard to explain but I couldn't move the transmission far enough forward (the transmission shaft would hit the pressure plate) to gain more tunnel clearance. Especially if I lowered the rear of the transmission to get it started it made the top of the bell housing hit the tunnel. I was only able to finally get it by jacking up the front of the engine to get a better angle. Is there a trick to this that I am missing? I rotated the transmission to the side which helped but still very difficult.

You said you had a line on a good used transmission? Shipping will probably kill me.

[NISTECH]

no I said for you to have one incase you found alot of components were damaged and it would end up costing more to restore yours then get another one.

As far as it not shifting now did you make sure all the detents went back in exactly as they came out? does the feel of it seem to be exactly as is was before tear down?

[nissanwalker]

It does not feel the same but I was very careful with the detents and I had no parts left over. Could it be as simple as the spring/pins that go in from either side right below the shifter. If I got them backwards could that stop it from allowing the shifter to go over to the 5th/rev slot? Also what does that spring /ball combo do that goes in the top of the shifter access, which seems to press on the spring/pin that I mentioned above.

Thanks, Jim

[NISTECH]

that is your reverse detent on the lever it is what pushes the shifter out of the reverse position so you dont accidently select reverse instead of fourth.

[nissanwalker]

I must have something wrong on the inside. I tried some more troubleshooting before I remove the transmission again.

I have no neutral ie every position of the gearshift tries to move the car when I ease out the clutch even in the center position where the shifter clearly feels as if it is in neutral.

Given the lack of torque 1st gear position feels more like 4th or 5th any ideas?

Do I have the forks backwards, I didn't think that was possible?

Thanks yet again

Jim

[NISTECH]

before you pull the trans again. go through the console area and pull the shifter out and reset it like doing the bushing you checked. it sounds like the shifter is not inserted in the socket for the shift rod.

[nissanwalker]

No it's fully inserted, so I went ahead and took the transmission out. I haven't cracked it open yet, that's for tomorrow.

Can the shift forks be put on backwards? I followed the Service manual but when I originally went to install the shift rods you can't put them in in the order they say because the center one needs to go through the 5th/rev rod no?

[nissanwalker]

I think I reversed the two outer shift rods, the amazing thing is that I was able to get it back together that way!

[NISTECH]

the center rod will go through the fork but does not attach to it. it slides on it. the fork attaches to the top rod.

[nissanwalker]

Which fork attaches to the top rod?

[NISTECH]

the fifth/ reverse fork

[nissanwalker]

Well I got it back together and it shifts perfectly. Everything was together correctly afterall. When I was putting on the extension case I must have allowed the striking rod to slip out of the shift rod ends and drop behind the ends ie not in the neutral position.

Thanks for all your help.

[NISTECH]

sucks you had to rip it out a second time but glad to hear it wasent anything serious.