Any insight would be great here folks. I was moving off from a light pretty hard and ran the car from 1st through 4th to about 6000RPM. Once I backed off I noticed my shifter feeling stiff (sticky or gummy like) making it hard to engage any gears but 6th gear.

I pulled off the road and fiddled with the shifter back and forth. Then all of a sudden the stiffness went away and the car changes smoothly 1 through 5 but can not engage 6th.

I have fiddled and found that, when parked, you can force the shifter into 6th but then you are unable to engage any other gears normally. Using a very firm movement out of 6th right into 5th opens up all other gears but once again locks out the ability to go easily into 6th gear. (like something is misaligned)

The car drives like new 1st through 5th. I only have 18000 miles on the car and have had no issues to this point. It has always been notchy when cold but I have read that this is typical for the car.

Any ideas?

 

possibly the bushings on the control arms of the transmission?

Here's a little picture i did for something different but it should get you an idea the place i'm talking about. The front of the motor faces away from you in this picture like you were looking through the cabin like superman or something.

 

So any news on this problem? My car just started doing it, and it's not the linkage, and I can select any gear manually on the tranmission bellcranks while bypassing the linkage, but not 6th. I can get it 6th with the shifter, but it's difficult.

 

im haveing the problem too i can go in all 5 gears beside 6th

 

I am having similar problems, any updates on this?

 

I had a similar issue with my 6spd only with 3rd and fourth was really gummy. It was determined to be an internal issue with the gearbox, sleeve issue.

Blake

 

Hey Folks,

You can check the diagram above, make sure the cable ends are now loose or the pins holding the lines in place are not coming off. Also make sure that there are no wiring harnesses or hoses/lines blocking the shifter assembly or the counterweights. From what the first person described, if the gummy feeling went away and came back, then something might be either loose or causing obstruction.

Jerry

 

I've inspected the linkage and shifter assembly, all appears to be working correctly. My symptoms are exactly as the original poster's... All gears engage fine until I try and engage 6th, it is very resistant to go in and then when I disengage it to downshift all of the other gears get gummy and locked out. If I play with it, I can free it up... putting it into 5th seems to "reset" the tranny somehow. Sycro? Sleeve? External (linkage, cables, etc?)

 

Has the clutch been changed on your car yet? Is there anything blocking the linkage/shifter arm/cables when you are in 6th?

Jerry

 

The clutch was replaced at 6k miles by the dealership (4k miles ago). It may need adjustment, but could it cause an issue in only 6th gear like this?

There doesn't appear to be anything blocking the linkage/shifter arm/cables, but I haven't torn my center console out to full inspect everything either.

 

I had/have this same problem. What the original poster posted is exactly what happen to my MR. This happened to me after I miss-shifted going from 2nd to 3rd. I checked my shift linkage and looked for anything out of the ordinary but everything seems fine. This happened with my stock clutch maybe about 7k miles ago. I recently had a new clutch installed and the problem is still there but now it's not as bad as before. Now I need to just put slightly more effort going into 6th to go in there; when the car is moving/rolling it's pretty easy going into 6th gear. I have came to the conclusion that this problem is related to something internally inside the transmission. I took drivetrain in automotive school so I'm not a complete newbie to transmissions but I guess you can say that i've learned to live with it. Let's all just it doesn't have any negative impact in the future

 

I e-mailed Shep about this problem and his response is below...