Was on my way to work today. Left my house, everything is going good.... start to go onto the freeway from a stop, get the car up to about 4.5k RPM, shift to second and nothing grabs..... i thought i let go of the clutch too soon so i just shift up to third.... go to 4th, and go into 5th with no problems... take the exit and start to down shift... get to second and nothing is there.... come to a complete stop, try first, NOTHING..... slam it into 2nd... got something... was enough to get me going. get to another stop light... try second again, nothing. i had to go into 3rd the rest of the way to work... about 3 miles of stop and go traffic..... got to the parking lot at work, popped the hood and i cant tell what is wrong... grant it i didnt know what i was looking for... lol i still have 3rd, 4th, 5th, and reverse...
any ideas as to what happened, i have been told that i do shift hard but i have always shift like i do....
car is a 1998 Cavalier Z-24
I'm not really a mechanic but it sounds like a cable isn't working right or the shifter to pull the cable that way, especially since you "shift hard"
while i was in the parking lot.... if i pushed 1st as high far as i could, i could make it grind... also, i could lay the shifter almost all the way down to the window controls in the second gear position....
as for these cables.... if someone could post a pic of them.... I left my car at work and i cant get to it until the morning... if it can be a easy fix, that would be awesome....
by easy, i mean i dont have to lift the car more then 6 inches..... lol
You have two shifter cables, one that works the side to side motion of the shifter (allowing you to use 1-2 and 5-R) and one that goes front and back (which you need for all of the gears).
It could be a simple as something a cable popped off the transmission, but usually when that happens you end up with no gears or only 3 and 4th.
You would be able to feel that tho, you would have no resistance in either the side to side motion or the front to back motion.
COULD be a stretched cable, but to me it sounds like a bent shift fork in the trans.
The shift cables attach to the trans under the brake master, but slightly more towards the passenger side. They work like a cup and ball system (cup is on the shifter cable end) make sure nothing popped off or is loose here, also make sure that the shifter firmly attached to the hold down bracket that holds the sheath to the trans.
On the shifter side they attach directly to the shifter assembly, pop the shift boot off and take a look inside, make sure nothing looks broken and the cables are firmly locked into the shifter.
Might help to get someone in the car and playing with the gears while you watch whats going on at the transmission.
Good luck bro.
I'm going to sat the shift cable. they are known to stretch.
FU Tuning
