Hi I am new to the forum. I have heard good things. I stuck with neons most my life and I got a cavy for a school car. Less then a month and I have had the worse problems. Today I slammed second gear and it didnt go in. I put it into 3rd and it went in. After that the shifter was mostly free play. I put it into 5th because it was a long drive home. I checked it out. When you push the shifter forward from 4th to 3rd (when the tranny is in 4th) it will change the gear to neutral and 3rd. It will move SIDE TO SIDE in neutral. But when its in the up position 1st 3nd or 5 it wont go anywhere the shifter has play back anf forward but not side to side. It wont pull it out of gear. So if you get what I am saying and how it works the up and down shift linkage will only pull the shift arm on the tranny. It wont push on it. I know the side to side linkage is fine. I assume its the shift linkage? I dont get it. Its still works one way but just not the other. Is there any kind of pins or adjusters on the linkage that may have broke and giving it free play when it the 1st 3rd and 5th. Anyone have a link for a "hot to" change the @!#$ linkage. Oh yea. I figure from that you know its a 5 speed manual transmission and a 97 cavaluer z24 2.4 dohc.

Sorry to revive an old thread but the exact same thing happened to my 98 Z24 on Fri. I haven't looked at it yet. Did you ever get yours resolved?

Check the top of the trans where the cables hook up. There is an arm that rotates back and forth from one cable, and goes up and down (in and out) from the other cable. The shaft moves up and down via a lever off the cable that rides in a groove. That groove can tend to mash if it's driven hard, and you start getting play that turns into not getting it into gear as easily. You can replace the arm, but it requires dissasembly of the whole mechanism, and the arm itself is like $70 or so. I was floored when I looked for the parts. I went into the dealership figuring I was going to pay around $100 or so for the entire assembly that goes on top of the trans, and they had it available in parts, but that wasn't quite the case!

Check it out, and your best bet might be to try and find another trans to scavange, because those trannies tend to fetch little money. That way you'd have a spare trans as well. The assembly comes off very easy with 4 bolts, and the cables just pop right off.

Hope that helps.

don't slam it into second might be a good start

thats like my dash make this squeaking noise, when does it do it??? when i hit it, WELL DON'T HIT IT


JBO since July 30, 2001

Thanks for the ideas, I haven't even bothered to dig into it yet. Maybe this weekend.

Konrad Emrich wrote:Thanks for the ideas, I haven't even bothered to dig into it yet. Maybe this weekend.

Nothing to dig into. It's just as easy to check that as it is to check your oil. Just open your hood, lean in, and take a look at the mechanism on the top of the tranny. You'll see where the cables attach, right next to the drivers side frame rail, and a little below the brake master cylinder. It's probably worn out, and there's slop in it. Like I said in my previous post, look at the groove in it. The edges of it tend to get mashed if the car is shifted hard like that.

Well I finally got around to pulling the shift actuator off last night and I can't visibly see or feel anything wrong with it so can someone take a look at these pics?

After rereading Quiklilcav's post it sounds like I was looking at the wrong side Guess I'll take some more pics tonight.

Konrad Emrich wrote:After rereading Quiklilcav's post it sounds like I was looking at the wrong side Guess I'll take some more pics tonight.

You apparently beat me to it.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

Well still no dice, I should be able to shift the tranny by moving the assembly (in the pic) on top of the tranny right?
I'm starting to think the 3rd gear synchro is fried

New tranny time or should I rebuild it?

Well finally got the car in the shop for a diagnosis.

Bent shifter fork (3rd gear). Shop quote:

$3600 for GM rebuilt tranny
OR
$2900 for salvage tranny.

I can get a 40k mile salvage tranny for $750.


What would you do?

lol the car isnt even worth that much. get a salvage tranny for 750 and get a few org members to help you out. im sure someone around your way can help out for little to no cost.

I know, it was more of a rhetorical question. Guess I left out the

I think I'm gonna do the NVG swap.

Actually I had the same problem today, but luckily for me I just broke the shifter cable for the odd gears(1, 3, 5)


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- putting the pieces back together -