Unusual shifter issue - SOLVED (for posterity)

[irish44j]

Did a road trip this weekend down to Richmond (about 100 miles), almost entirely cruising down I-95 form DC in the '88 924S. Car ran great the whole way, cruising mostly around 70mph in mostly rainy weather. Anyhow, as I got off on my exit in Richmond yesterday I rev-match downshifted to 4th then 3rd and then 2nd (though I didn't perfectly hit the revs on 2nd), and then braked into a stoplight. As I came to the light, clutched into put the car into 1st, and it wouldn't go in. At all. Put the clutch to the floor still no-go. As I sat at the light, I tried other gears and it would go into 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th with more-than-usual effort and notchiness. Clutch felt pretty normal, it seemed, but hard to tell since I dont' drive this car all that regularly (but had driven it a bit the day before). But I could sit at a light with the clutch fully pressed in and the car in 2nd and the car would not move forward or anything, so the clutch was definitely disengaged.

Also would not go into reverse. I was about a mile from my destination so I just started in 2nd at several stoplights and then parked on the curb when I got there. We took my friend's car over the weekend to do things since I coudlnt' really work on mine or check on much parallel-parked. My intent was to just limp it back home today using 2nd-5th and figure it out when I got home.

This afternoon I left her house, still not able to put it in 1st, and got myself to the highway, where the car seemed to shift fine up to 5th. Cruised for 30 minutes and then hit a rest stop to take the roof off (parking on a shoulder so I didn't have to back out, not having reverse). Car left running while I did that, in neutral with the e-brake on.

Jumped back in the car to get back on the road and intuitively shifted it into 1st.........and it went right in, no problem. Jumped back on the highway, everything felt totally normal with the shifting, clutch, etc. Then I hit heavy stop-and-go traffic and had to stop a few dozen times. Every time, shifted into 1st no problem at all, and throughout the range. Drove all the way home, 3 hours on the highway about half of it in stop-and-go. Got to my house, and car went into reverse just fine as well.

My initial thoughts were:
1. Somehow an air bubble in the clutch system got knocked into the stream when I downshifted suddenly and eventually made its way out of the system through the M/C and reservoir as I drove and everything heated up?

2. Throwout bearing somehow got stuck in an odd place and didn't allow the clutch to fully disengage, and then eventually somehow let itself free as I drove? Not sure why this would have still let me get it into 2nd-5th gear though.

3. The rear shift linkage has spherical bearings on it....I guess somehow something could have binded and then unbinded itself? I can't really see how that could happen, but I guess.

In the end, however, it was something stupider and more basic than that. Got under the rear of the car and the shift linkage looks fine (car is shifting fine sitting "off" in my garage). And I noticed that where the long linkage main rod comes to the back of the car, it goes through the transaxle housing and has some kind of hard plastic lining "tube." Well, that tube had slipped out the back and looks like it must have been getting jammed between the metal bracket and the linkage bolts at the transmission. There were a few "dents" in the end of it where it was hitting the linkage bolt I guess. So I reached up there and pushed the plastic tube back into the bracket, so hopefully that fixes the problem. Don't really get why this piece really exists, but it has some little notches on it that are supposed to hold it in place, so maybe they're just a little weak. I'll stick some epoxy up there to hold in in place I guess.

You can see the tube (already pushed back in) up there on the left of this pic where the rod comes through. So anyhow, it's something dumb that sucks way less than a busted transmission or clutch!

[IdahoDoug]

Huh, that is an interesting one. Thank you for posting it. So don't epoxy it - I suggest a few blobs of simple silicone caulk that you can easily get to to release it. I doesn't take any force so all you need to do is prevent vibration from causing it to slide again. But you don't want to hassle with epoxy later if you need a clutch, throwout bearing, etc.

Again - thanks for posting. That was unusual but as these cars get older and that plastic shrinks this may become one of those legendary road side diagnostics. Drive safely.

[pp944]

yep, thanks for sharing.
since it went into the other gears and drove with no other hiccups it would have been a mystery had it happened to me.

[irish44j]

Oh trust me, I was having visions of having to drop everything out of the car to get to the clutch and/or transmission rebuild/replace! I actually found it at night when I was walking by the car and said "well, I'll just look under here and see if anything looks odd" lol. I always like visual troubleshooting at night with an LED flashlight since it really helps to focus your eyes on little details that you might not notice in full daylight.

Good call on the silicone, I'll do that instead.

[jhowell371]

Yeah, thanks for sharing that info. You might try using acrylic caulk with silicone. It will strip right of with a heat gun when removal is needed. Pure silicone is nasty to remove.

[irish44j]

Originally Posted by jhowell371

Yeah, thanks for sharing that info. You might try using acrylic caulk with silicone. It will strip right of with a heat gun when removal is needed. Pure silicone is nasty to remove.

I just slapped some black RTV on there. You can access the tube from the bellhousing access hatch too, but I don't really see why I'd need to get it out anyhow. It's just a pass-through and doesnt' seem to prevent access to any of the transaxle connectors..