Jammed in Reverse, WTF?

Hey guys, some of you may have read this in my Member's Rides thread but I'm making this thread to reach more people.

So my gearbox is jammed in reverse, it just won't disengage. I can start the car with the clutch in and drive in reverse, but it just won't go into neutral.

I've tried everything I can think of. Remove everything that's in the way and put a jack between the chassis and shift lever on the box, whack it with a hammer, etc..

Has this happened to anyone else before? I really don't want to have to drop the box out right now, I'd rather just swap to a 202 box if I'm going to drop it out but I haven't got the money for one right now because I'm about to buy a 3SGTE long block to rebuild and do up.

Any ideas?

 

Yep, was driving with no oil for about 200 km :byodood
There was quite a bit of noise before I realised the problem and filled up the oil.

On another note, do the output seals just pull out and knock back in? Mine need changing badly.

Can't move the levers by hand at all.
I was thinking I should remove the selector assy, but I'll have to buy yet another large spanner or shifter lol

The bush is on there good and I filled the box through the breather hole because I didn't have the right size socket to get the detent undone, I have since bought the right socket and adapter etc. and undone the detent.

A bit more information that might help; When the box got jammed in reverse I was bogged in sandy mud-dirt with the sump sitting on the ground. I shifted into reverse because we dug the wheels out and put sticks under the tread, I noticed that I couldn't shift back out but thought it was just because the engine was sitting on the ground or something.
Once I I got pulled out of the bog it still wouldn't disengage.

I'm not at home right now so can't try anything, but I'm getting paid on Tuesday so I'll get a nice big cheapo shifter and pull the shifter assy out.

It is a very odd problem, I've done some serious googling and come up empty. It seems nobody else on the internet has ever had this problem, do I get an award for getting an S53 jammed in reverse? :smilielol5

Thanks for your help Kev, I hope I can get this fixed very soon.

Think we should add a "Ask Stig, he should know!" button to the top of every new help thread? :tongue:

 

Reverse donuts xD

The old Corolla boxes must be pretty strong cause I thrashed my old 88 seca around the dirt tracks behind my parents house and the engine and suspension was what went first. I was whipping the front end around from a reverse and all sorts of stuff that I wouldn't even think about doing in the sleeka lol

On topic; I've tried forcing the box out of reverse by putting my scissor jack between the lever and chassis and it just went back to how it was when I let the jack off.
What did you use to get it to disengage?

 

Something being broken inside is what I was fearing.

I thought the selector shaft moving L/R|circular motion(?) was the R|N|5th like:


It moves slightly in/out and slightly L/R. I haven't tried moving it in/out because to disengage I have to push the selector shaft towards the engine.

How much of the box would I have to remove to get to the reverse selector arm/mounting?

 

I'll go and grab a nice big shifter tomorrow to get the shifter assy out. If I can't disengage reverse with a screwdriver or otherwise find something wrong with the shifter and fix it, I'll have to try what you suggested.

As fun as rebuilding the box would be, I hope I don't have to because I need my car working.

 

So I got a nice big 12" shifter and got the big nut on the shifter assy undone, but now it won't come out.
I've tried undoing the bronze coloured hex bolt because I thought it might be holding it in, but it won't budge.

Any ideas?

 

That's what I thought, didn't think there should be anything else holding it in after a huge ass nut and a detent bolt.

Already tried forcing it out of gear with a scissor jack, it moved but just went straight back to where it was when I let the pressure off.

The selector being broken is probably the easiest of the few things that could be wrong to fix, so that's a good thing.

I'll try getting it out of gear and pulling the selector out again tomorrow, then it's off to the yards if I need a new selector. Shouldn't be too expensive, if it is I might as well just get a 202 box and be done with it lol

 

No more progress on the selector yet, it just doesn't want to move. But I found out why my engine has been running so badly!



Lesson learned, the dizzy is a very important part of the ignition system and in the event of power loss is probably the first thing you should check!

Good thing I have one in great condition sitting under the house eace

I see we have acquired a few more emoticons, and lost the thumbs up one in the process.

 

It looked fine when I bought the car, but back then I had next to no idea about cars yet.

The inside was just as bad! The spark points were corroded to shit, #2 and #3 were eaten back into the plastic. Surprisingly the rotor button was fine :scratch

Routine services must not include the ignition system?

I just put the new cap on and the first thing I thought was; I can't wait to take this beasty for a ride now! But then I remembered that I still had to fix the selector

Looking at the pictures Stig posted, I can clearly see that there should be nothing in the way of me pulling out the selector assy and nothing should be stopping me from disengaging reverse. There clearly has to be something broken on the selector assy, but I can't get it out to check.