I drive an '03 wrx and one day I decided to let loose a little on some wet pavement... and i'm already in 1st gear, rolling, gun it a little, shift into 2nd only to find out i'm stuck in 1st. I manage to get into neutral after some tugging, but that's all i can do, 1st and neutral. there is no allowance for much movement into any other gear. also, the clutch is fine. I take it to Elite, aka Speedfreak's shop... crack open the transmission to find... this part mangled up in with the transfer drive gear transfer drive gear with some teeth missing bad close-up transmission, which looks good so we basically don't have an explanation for getting stuck. also, the center differential wont move freely, is it supposed to? and how? did i mess up the center diff? or did it get stuck because of that metal ring? any knowledgeable help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.
my understanding on tranny internals is minimal. but I've got a gen 1 legacy one apart in the basement, so I know better than most. I also have very limited experience with the newer stuff (hydraulic clutch and the like), so I could be wrong there too. But assuming things haven't changed much in the last 10 years, I might be able to shed a little light on this. also, I'm on dial-up. so I haven't looked at all your pics. but the metal 'ring' looks like it *might* be one of the shims that sets the gear mesh between the 2 gearsets. but it's hard to tell. but if so, that might explain why the synchros won't work quite right.... the center diff has a pretty strong LSD in it. you won't be able to move it by hand *unless* the shaft on the transfer gear is removed (this might be different on the new ones, but I doubt it. that shaft ties the spider gears into the clutch pack for the LSD. if it's removed, the spider gears are no longer limited.) what kind of fluid were you running when this happened? my current DD '94 LGT had the same problem, except with second suddenly after doing some hard driving. I changed the fluid and used about a 1/2 quart of Rislone Engine treatment in with the gear oil, and it cleared it up over night. you also could try running some ATF to clear things up (but not indefinitely, just for a couple days). but I suspect you were a little beyond a fluid change :eek3:
My screen name isn't Speedemon.. But close I guess. When he brought the car I assumed it was a shift fork from the way the shifter felt. From past experience, most of the tranny's that feel similar to this one, it is fork or rail related. However this is my first subie tranny I've had open and the forks and rails appear much better then the DSM tranny. I'm not sure if the terms he is using are correct, but basically all the damage seems to be in the transfer case section of the tranny assembly. My question was about the center diff, does it normally move freely or does it always have a little resistance to it? If any of his damage is fairly common, are there any after market replacement parts that are better then stock? Any help or info is appreciated. Thanks, Momin
what he said :biggrin: thanks momin and i was running royal purple in the tranny for approximately 6,000 miles...
replace the broken gear and run 100% syncromesh in it. It worked for my dying 92 honda prelude tranny and it took away the grinding issues as well. 70k later it was still taking 6000 rpm clutch drops and auto-x events every other weekend.
what about the tranny cocktail? and do you guys think its more of a fluid issue rather than something wrong with the gears or center LSD? and fyi, 92,000 miles currently on the car.
No. A tranny does not have the symptoms yours did from a fluid issue. Anyone else have any guesses as to why he wasn't able to get out of gear?(or shift at all for that matter). Obviously there is an issue, the broken gear teeth and the shredded spacer(or whatever that is) is a result of something. But I'm not familiar with this tranny, so looking for some clues if this is something common, or if this is just a case of stypert10 abusing his car beyond normal humans.:biggrin:
do you mean the whole unit? it's attached to the driven shaft on the trans, and the only resistance is the rest of the trans turning. but if the shaft on the transfer gear is in it, you will not be able to spin the internals by hand. the LSD is quite strong. if that shaft is out, you will be able to turn the internals, but there is some resistance. so, I actually looked at the pics....and the piece that was in with the transfer gear....is it flat, like a gasket? was it interfering with the shifter at all? obviously you need to replace the transfer gear. and make sure that piece isn't one of the shims under the bracket on the rear bearing on the driven shaft. also, see if you can get it into neutral (I can see it's in 1st gear now). once it's actually in neutral, you should be able to move the shifter freely from side to side. I attached a pic of the shifter rods in neutral.....if they're not nice and inline like that, you're problem is the 1st gear synchro
To get into neutral, it takes A LOT of force. Then once into neutral, it isn't very free at all to move side to side. I'll take a look at the first gear/synchro to see if there are any obvious signs, but I doubt it. Thanks for the continued help.
Okie, thanks for the much needed advice. I'll see if i can take a few more detailed pics with a better camera tonight.
Last night I reached in the little holes in the center diff to feel again how it felt spinning/rotating the assembly. It was moving, but with a decent amount of force. Then to my surprise, the entire assembly came apart without any real force, and without even trying to do so. It looks like there is a skinny metal ring that sits in a small groove. That groove also seems to have some sort of gasket material which is mostly worn out. Any idea if that assembly is supposed to be so easy to come apart? Otherwise I took a brief look at the 1st gear, and what I can see if the brass clutch in the hub/synchro assembly. The little selector teeth are a bit worn, but nothing obscene yet. So still do not have a definitive answer why it will not shift gears.
Nope.. mine did this with about 2000 miles on it... got a little antsy leaving a car wash.... got stuck between 1st & 2nd... let it sit for about 2 hours and then yanked on the stick.. went bang and the car has almost 60K on the clock and never had any other issues...
so i have better pics up now: whole transmission broken teeth, look inside the case... closer pics 1st gear synchro, doesn't look bad... center LSD top cover of center LSD Please let me know if anyone knows anything else...
Does anyone know where to get a factory service manual? Either in hardcopy(normal book fashion..), or on CD? If not the factory one, then anything good?
