Manual Shifter Sticking/Locked Up in Neutral
 

Experienced issue with Manual Gear Shifter not moving well from gate to gate after track session where I missed a gear shift and grinded twice before successful engagement. Anyone had issues or heard of cases where gear shifter was sticky or near locked-up in neutral where you could not get into any gear?

Further details:
During a 30 minute track session I was down shifting from 5th to 3rd around 70 MPH...but missed and was apparently pushing into 1st. Obviously I grinded..forced again (by mistake into 1st) with more grind...then realized I missed. It went into 3rd fine...and ran the rest of the session with no issue. Upon pitting I noticed that the gear shifter felt tight and not smooth. Got into 2nd and continued off the track. Once stopped...the gear shifter would barely move within neutral and struggled to get into any gate/gear. Finally got into reverse to pull into parking spot. With engine off...and on...both exhibited something wrong with gear shifter (very very tight and not allowing full range of motion. After a few minutes...I was able to get into first but still not right....starting driving around...and it freed up. All back to normal with smooth operation. I went back out for 2 more 30 minute track sessions with no issues. No issues ever since.

Any thoughts / insights?

Sounds like it's running fine now. Transmissions are build to take quite a bit of abuse so don't worry about. Any damage is done and you can't change it, just change the gear oil and move on.

The FSM (link in my sig) has exploded diagrams, descriptions, etc of the transmission assembly. Maybe you can get an idea of what happened from there.

I'd follow B&W_Evader's suggestion and change the lube. Drain into a clean container and inspect for pieces of metal (some small flakes are to be expected) and rubber/plastic (should be none).

I suspect you have torn an elastomer part (eg, o-ring, seal) and some "rubber" got hung up in the shifter mechanism. It finally cleared itself and you have a chunk floating around. But that's just a guess.

Good suggestion SouthArk...looks like a few spots where something could have lodged within. Not sure if i am talented enough to disassemble enough down through the console to physically see anything

There's nothing for you to really see through the console. The shifter is "external" to the transmission. On these cars it reminds me of an old school manual with linkage. If you pull the console you won't be looking down into the transmission if that's what you are thinking.

It's just the shifter under the console:

http://www.cdmfabrication.com/bbpics...wmshifter3.jpg

From under the car if you pull the rubber boot down, you can see the linkage.

At this point you're worried over nothing. You ground things a bit, whatever is worn is worn. Drive the car and stop worrying about it. It's fine now. Best thing you can do is stop being paranoid, it'll just drive you nuts.

Thanks for the info before I went digging down through the console. I will take your advice and just not worry about it. Thanks to all!

You should drop in a set of these shifter springs.

https://www.z1motorsports.com/mtec-s...g-pr-7355.html

Stock springs seemed limp to me. These provide a much better feel and more positive engagement. Won't fix a thing if there are internal issues, however it may prevent a missed gear in the future.