Hello all,

I want to buy a 85 GT, the 4 speed is stuck in 2nd. The owner said he was trying to "speed-shift" from 2nd to 3rd but never got to 3rd, since then it never moved from 2nd.

He also told me that it was not possible to fix the transmission without removing the engine from the bay. I already got the price down from 1500 to 1200 but I'm afraid having the engine pulled out will cost much more, like double or more.

Can you confirm the transmission cannot be repaired in place?

Thank you very much and I'm very please of being part of this community! Ok I don't own a Fiero right now but I did, and I will..

JD

The problem is most likely internal to the trans due to wear.
The trans will most likely need to come out and be replaced or repaired.

[This message has been edited by olejoedad (edited 06-30-2014).]

confirmed. But you can take the transmission out without removing the engine too.

If the engine is supported, the transmission can be pulled out the left wheel well. Of course, the suspension on that side has to be removed, too. GM once made an engine support that mounted on top of the shock towers to facilitate pulling the transmission for clutch replacement. Some members here have fabricated their own support of various materials, including 2 x 4's. Many find it easier to drop the entire cradle assembly with motor, trans and suspension attached.

Disconnect the cables at the shifter and move the transmission levers by hand to see if you can get it out of gear. It might be that you just have a bad cable. Even if that's the case, if the previous owner has been speed shifting, he's probably abused the clutch and it may need replacement.

It could be something as simple as the tooth on the select lever that's jumped out of the groove on the shift shaft coming out of the transmission. Have a close look at the following pictures to get an idea what I mean:

This is the 4 speed Muncie with the levers circled in red:



One of the levers causes the shift shaft to rotate while the other one causes the shaft to pull out of or push into the transmission. The green arrow in this next photo shows how the cable pulls and pushed on this second lever, while the red arrow shows the resulting movement of the shaft, and the blue arrow points to the location of the tooth on the lever that engages a slot in the shaft.



Often times the little tooth on the lever gets worn to the point where it slips out of the groove on the shaft and no longer allows you to shift. A welder can easily build up the tooth again and grind it so it's like new.



Hopefully that's all that's needed.

Is that tooth supposed to be round? Is that a worn tooth or is the flat machined?

Considering the age of all these parts I would say it started out round, but that is just a guess as I don't have that transmission.