I got this tranny problem. Every couple hours of wheeling I seem to get unlucky and my tranny looses all gears but reverse and fifth. ANother weird thing is that its in gear when the shifter is in neutral. THis ruined the last trip I went on cause I thought I busted my tranny. After pulling it out and finding nothing wrong I slapped it back in and everthing worked fine. I found out later from a buddy (motodan) that its the shifter forks that get all messed up inside the tranny and all you have to do is pull the shifter and mess with it a bit to get it figured out. Problem is that it's happening quite a bit now and I am sick of it. My question is, have any of you guys run into this problem? How did you fix it and/or what do you suggest for a long term solution cause its :rainbow: fixing that shit!

ever thought of replacing it :flipoff2:

Originally posted by DSI
ever thought of replacing it :flipoff2:

Thats a thought...
In some areas the price on trannys is pretty good.

:flipoff2: :flipoff2:

I just rebuilt it and cash flow is pretty low right now, so not an option. I would rather fix it on the trail, but I want to find out if anybody has a solution

Did you do the rebuild? If so you might want to take the time to back through it again.:)

I did go back through it, three times now, with the help of my father who's a diesel mechanic the third time. Everything seems to be cool

Sounds spooky man.:confused:

Originally posted by nuttzack
I got this tranny problem. Every couple hours of wheeling I seem to get unlucky and my tranny looses all gears but reverse and fifth. ANother weird thing is that its in gear when the shifter is in neutral. THis ruined the last trip I went on cause I thought I busted my tranny. After pulling it out and finding nothing wrong I slapped it back in and everthing worked fine. I found out later from a buddy (motodan) that its the shifter forks that get all messed up inside the tranny and all you have to do is pull the shifter and mess with it a bit to get it figured out. Problem is that it's happening quite a bit now and I am sick of it. My question is, have any of you guys run into this problem? How did you fix it and/or what do you suggest for a long term solution cause its :rainbow: fixing that shit!

Did you check to make sure that little bolt that guides the shifter isn't broken. That would make it hard, if not impossible to shift and I would think would put a lot of stress on the forks.

Yeah, I replaced it. It shifts easy and smooth. Its just that the forks get all bound up or something.

Check the shift rail plastic pads, the spring pin on top of the tranny, and the cup the shifter sits in. Call Petroworks, they can talk you through it if I'm not being clear...

Mine was very difficult to shift, would get stuck in a gear (usually 5th) while the shifter itself was flopping around, finally in a fit of rage I managed to engage 5th and "another gear" at the same time, stripping the teeth off 5th. I got another tranny, in pieces. During the assembly, I used the shifter from my trans, and I discovered the pin that guides the shift ball was broken, but still in place - I replaced it, the newly assembled trans shifts rather well. I am not sure that this was the only issue, though. The shift fork shafts do not move smoothly in the upper case half ( still in a box in my garage) - while the pin makes things much more precise, I think it still should have been easy to move the shift forks back and forth to engage the gears. Sad to say, I believe it was something in the rebuild I did, and I am a certified mechanic (Ford, not 'Zuk,tho') and have built lots of trannies, stick and auto. I am saying even with the expert help, you may have missed something. If you need to save the money, you need to invest the elbow grease and pull it again, and/or watch for a cheap replacement unit. The alternative will be to end up breaking the damn thing, never cheap.

:( jeez that's a tough one. are maybe the forks moving on the shafts? ie: the split pins (aka roll pins) possibly broken, allowing too much deflection under load, but not enough when just eyeballing them when dismantled?

no chance of a missing thrust washer/s?

I had a problem where I would lose everything on the right side of the shift pattern. It would always start with reverse first. I went outside to pull the tranny and just in case before I did I looked at the shift tower. Inside of it there is a set of detent rods and springs that return the shifter to center when in neutral. I took it out and found that one of them did not move at all and the other was sticky. I took it apart regreased it all, and reassembled. Still no workey. So I took it apart and looked again and found that the springs had slowly worn grooves in the shafts over time. This under the wrong conditions (when warm) would not allow the shifter to pass from neutral to 4th 5th or reverse. It could easily have happened to the left side of the pattern or both. I reground and polished the rods to get the ridges out, regreased and reassembled. It has NEVER shifted as well as it does now.
But as for yours being in gear when the shifter is in neutral...I dont know. It seems to me that it would have to be that the shifter slipped from the notches in the shifting fork. I would think that something has to be worn, whether it the sheet, the shifter or ball on the shifter itself or the fork rod I don't know. I do know that SuzukiJohn has new model shift towers that would fix it if it was on the upper end of the tranny. (you say you have been in the tranny itself 3 times and inside if it isn't right it usually won't work right sometimes and then fail intermittently)



http://suzukijohn.hypermart.net/parts.htm
LATE MODEL (MUCH IMPROVED) SHIFT LEVER...OEM...MUST BE USED WITH NEW TOWER AND LOCATOR BOLT...$48.00
LATE MODEL SHIFT TOWER...OEM...MUST BE USED WITH LATE MODEL SHIFT LEVER (SEE ABOVE)...$52.00


You would have to but both to make it work. I have heard these make everything feel like new.