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so im headed to the Tampa Bay Mazda Club BBQ and my car gets stuck in 3rd.... wtf right? anyways i get it out of third, and i have to force it in first felt like i was trying to push a sword into solid cement lol, get it in first pull foward a bit and it wouldnt go into any gear and neutral was even stiff....so i shake it around in neutral and my shifter just drops! D: so my buddy tows me back to his place and we discover there is only one drop bracket holding the linkage up, well was i snapped it off somehow.......!? but anyways addressing the gear thing i supported the linkage and the car will not go in gear! i dont think the syncros are blown or anything i havent had any problems until now, we checked the fluid and it was 2 quarts low and the pivot bushing on the second rod of the shift linkage was bad, but just in case the fluid fill and bushing change dont work can anyone help? any opinion is helpful and sorry this is so long thanks!!!

The shifter dropping down from the body is a common problem and easy to fix...

To see if your transmission is fucked, you need to disconnect the linkage at the transmission and try shifting the transmission threw the gears by hand with the car off...

Yea I heard the drop thing is common, with the car off its hard to push it into gear but the more i would do it the easier it gets if that makes any sense and thats with the linkage still connected

MazdaMan1991 wrote:Yea I heard the drop thing is common, with the car off its hard to push it into gear but the more i would do it the easier it gets if that makes any sense and thats with the linkage still connected

When the linkage drops it can get a little bit miss aligned... Thats why you want to disconnect the linkage, or get the shifter back up into place..

Well got the linkage back up (pics coming soon) and the fluid fill helped a lot, but since the pivot bushing is so worn I can't quite go all the way into gear and it creeks a lot so when it gets in and I install it ill post a follow up

So update, new pivot bushing is installed but, 1st gear started working I really had to shove it in gear though, then when I'd put in 1st when I let off the clutch it started grinding then popped out of gear, all in all 2nd 4th and reverse only work got 3rd to work once but that didn't last long also its extremely stiff and rough even in neutral, still have to work hard to get it in gear and shift, my clutch pedal has been soft since I got the car but I've replaced the slave cylinder with proper bleeding, hopefully ill have my spare tranny in tomorrow to find out whether this ones fucked (excuse my language) or the clutch is bad.....

MazdaMan1991 wrote:So update, new pivot bushing is installed but, 1st gear started working I really had to shove it in gear though, then when I'd put in 1st when I let off the clutch it started grinding then popped out of gear, all in all 2nd 4th and reverse only work got 3rd to work once but that didn't last long also its extremely stiff and rough even in neutral, still have to work hard to get it in gear and shift, my clutch pedal has been soft since I got the car but I've replaced the slave cylinder with proper bleeding, hopefully ill have my spare tranny in tomorrow to find out whether this ones fucked (excuse my language) or the clutch is bad.....

Clutch problems affect all the gears... Its not judgmental to what gear you want to be in... You have either a transmission problem or linkage problem..

Well the linkage is fine I just put new bushings in it and the transmission has a very hard time and is very stiff even od the car is off

so tranny is screwed, after throwing in my spare just took this one apart to discover the diff with broken and cracked teeth, so my diff went out :/ anyone have any good diffs laying around?

MazdaMan1991 wrote:so tranny is screwed, after throwing in my spare just took this one apart to discover the diff with broken and cracked teeth, so my diff went out :/ anyone have any good diffs laying around?

I do... measure the width of your ring gear, and count the number of teeth on it... I'll see if the ones I have will match up...

sweeet ill get on that thanks!