Any GSR owner having trouble engaging their reverse gear? took me 4 tries before mines lock into place while trying to back into a parking spot this morning.

 

well... technically there is no reverse gear. The transmission uses some weird combination of 1 & 2 in order to make an R. Saves weight or something.

In any case, every stick car I've owned (which is all of them save one), R can be sometimes sticky to engage. Sometimes I have to rock the car forward or cycle into a forward gear, then back into R to get the synchros aligned... especially when the tranny is cold.

 

It uses a combination of 1st and 3rd. but yes i've had trouble engaging it. The best solution i've found is to shift into first and then back and into 3rd.

They used the combination of 1st and 3rd in order to save space so they didn't have to squeeze a dedicated reverse gear and therefore make the transmission less robust.

 

It’s a Rite of Passage. All stick-shift operators encounter this. This and learning to pull away on an uphill without using the handbrake is what separates us from the automatic crowd. You get used to it.

 

I don't know about right of passage. I have driven 4 different cars (RSX-S, CRX, S2000, Neon) with a manual trans and never had to do anything like this. Good to know though.

 

Let out the clutch and then put it back in. Sometimes it is the reverse lockout that gets in the way. I never have any problems.

 

i read somewhere that it was 1st and 3rd spinning in opposite directions or something like that

 

I only have had the problem when the tranny was cold. ^ It would have to use a second gear to get reverse because you need an extra gear to get the output shaft to spin the opposite way to get reverse... say you have 2 gears to spin the output shaft to the right 3 gears would spin it to the left and so on for every even gear afterwords and every odd gear afterwards.. so if you had 15 gears lined up the last one would spin to the left and if you had 16 it would be to the right... Just a little basic gear theory!! lmao.... my .02

 

That happened occasionally on my old X GSR and VIII...sometimes if you let go of the clutch then press the clutch in again and put it in R it will work.

 

yeah it only happens to me when its cold as well
and with your gear theory i still dont understand anything about it lol

 

I had a hard time engaing reverse in my GS-R. Also in my Acura, my other Acura, my Maxima, my 240sx, my brothers GTO, my friends Cobra......oh you get the freaking point...reverse in pretty much all cars sometimes just doesn't wanna engage easily.

 

Ditto same **** with every stick car that I have owned/Driven, New or old!

 

lol **** man, my max and 240 even in auto sometimes didn't want to let me put it into "R" haha.

 

Correct me if am wrong, but the MR SST is the one that uses 1 and 3rd gear to make reverse. The GSR is a plain old manual.

OP did you release the clutch and try again after pressing down the clutch pedal a second time, this is in the manual(the book in your glove box).

And yes just a few times, and after i depress the clutch the second time it goes right in.



Edit: nope you are right the GSR does use the 1 and 3rd gear for reverse.

 

well its hard to explain in words easier on paper to show someone

Edit: <------- 100th post oh yeah evolving!! hahaaa