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Ive got this guy I work with that has a mazda 626 with a manual tranny in it and its stuck in reverse. Like the stick wont come out of gear. This is probably the wrong section to post this but does anyopne have any clues?

Steve-O

if the shift linkage is not stuck on the exhaust or crossmember than its inside the trans. mabe him or a prevous owner liked to drive crazy in reverse. it sounds like trany time.
this is a manual trans car right?

Could just as easily be a crapped out clutch. Ask if it was slipping before. Could also be the throw out bearing. He should know what symptoms led up to it getting stuck in gear.

can you push the clutch in ?
i mean like does it come back lol

PATDIESEL wrote:Could just as easily be a crapped out clutch. Ask if it was slipping before. Could also be the throw out bearing. He should know what symptoms led up to it getting stuck in gear.

Agreed. What symptoms preceded getting stuck in gear? Did the clutch seem to be engaging/disengaging w/pedal progressively closer to the floor? If so, my $ would be on a shot clutch slave cylinder. Pretty easy replacement part and common to wear out on 100K+ MTX cars regardless of make/model.

The car was slipping a little before hand but he can drive it in reverse fine. It just wont come out of reverse. Ill have him take a look at the linkage. The clutch goes in and out and works like it should as long as you only want to go in reverse so I dont know.

Steve-O

If it is the clutch he sould be able to rev match and pull it out of gear. Then try putting it in another gear with rev matching and see if it gets stuck there too. Do not grind gears. It may take some trial to find what revs will release the gear and what revs are needed to get into another gear, but it should move fairly smoothly.
A visual inspection of the slave cylinder will tell you if it is pushing the clutch fork. If the pedal goes down and the rod on the slave doesn't move then it needs to be replaced.
Check the brake fluid and if it is low then you need t bleed the clutch and see if that helps.
If it will not come out of gear then you'll need to take the trans off and see if it is the clutch. If the clutch looks ok, then take the trans to a shop to have it looked at with the intention of rebuilding it.
Check the trans fuild too. With the car level take the speedo gear out, if it is wet then you have fluid. If not take the bolt out of the front side of the trans and fill from the speedo hole. When fluid starts coming out the plug in the front it is full. Let it quit draining from the front and reinstall the plug and speedo gear. (probably worth while if it is low to go ahead and drain the fluid from the plug on the bottom of the tranny and refill with new fluid as mentioned above)

The clutch is working I think because he can start it and go in reverse but he cant pull the stick out of gear. If there was a problem with the clutch wouldnt the car be stuck engaged in reverse so it would lurch backward if that were the case?

Steve-O

I think it could be fork inside of transmission. Bent or somehow else damaged..

Again, if the clutch wasnt working I dont think that you could start it and it not act like the clutch is engaged. It can start and you can let the clutch out and go in reverse you just cant take it out of reverse or put it in any other gear.

Steve-O

At the end of the transmission there is a bolted on cover. Under this cover is your 5th and reverse gears. I would check there for a damaged fork or something. I just repaired the fork on mine as it was popping out of fifth.

I just went byhis house. He said that 5th was popping out before hand too. The SC is good and it turns out that the car seemed like it was trying to pull when you started it. How much did it cost for the parts to fix that kman and did you have to take the tranny out to replace them?

Steve-O

Did you check the fluid level of the tranny? Is the fluid old? I'd change the fluid before I took the fifth gear cover off. I'd also leave inner transmision work to a pro. They are easy to mess up and impossible to fix unless you know what you are doing.

The shift fork was 36 bucks canadian. It can be changed with tranny in the car. If its like the mx-3 trans you just pull the left front wheel and splash shield. There is a steel cover at the end of the tranny. Under that cover is 5th and reverse gears. Careful taking it apart so you know where it all goes back.

Oh and by the way don't change the oil first just drain it and fill again when done. If you change it first you'll lose it all again when you take the cover off.