To the chagrin of many Shaw AFB members/users of MWR, they CLOSED the 'Auto Hobby Shop' here in central South Carolina. This base wanted to shift the funds to the golf course, which is a top priority here at Shaw...


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Sounds about right! I was stationed there twice in the 21st TASS. You know it's so important to smack those *****!

 

Just found this posted by Phil Alveriz:
managed to find the page on the shop manual where it describes the mechanism. the text says:
"The floor shift (2) is connected to the transmission by a coupling module (13) and supported on the body tunnel so
that it can move via a swivel lever (3). This prevents transmission of vibrations and noise to the floor shift and to the
tunnel by means of rubber mounts on the coupling rod, shift rod and the two swivel levers. The selector movement
is transmitted from the shift lever to the inner shift module (12) in the transmission by the selector cable (4) and the
shift movement is transmitted by the shift rod (1). Both transmission components are maintenance-free."
wonder what that "maintenance free" means? for how long?
Continued:
just found here this: https://www.yourmechanic.com/questio...-move-by-sue-b
"When a shifter becomes hard to move, it is usually the interlock cable. AKA,shift cable. This cable slides in a housing and connects directly to the transmission. When this cables becomes worn, it gets hard to move inside the housing. There is also a shift lever assembly, which is what you are grabbing when you move your car in and out of gear. Both of these are the main culprits with hard to move shifters. "
This was an interesting read for me!

 

Studying my new/used shifter I "think" I may have found out what's wrong with 1st to 2nd. There's a plastic on the shifter that may be broken and letting the stick go to far to the left. One pic shows a metal ramp that the plastic part rides up on when shifting to reverse gear. Otherwise going from 1sr to 2nd the plastic part rides next to the metal ramp. If that plastic part has broken that would give me the problem I'm having.
Top pic is 1st gear. Middle pic is reverse. last pic is 2nd gear. Maybe the metal guide is loose or out of adjustment thus needing the Miller tool 9120. Also the reverse cable may be out of adjustment.



Notice the plastic shifter part is on top of the metal guide for reverse. That's why you have to "
lift" the shifter to go into reverse.


Notice for 2nd gear the plastic part rides next to the metal ramp.

 

Took the boot off my shifter and took a look. Found an understanding of what's going on. You'll see in the picture, the shinny wear mark, where 2nd is too far right of the alignment rail, aka same as the reverse lockout rail, by about 1/4" and is why I keep hitting 4th instead of 2nd. The rail is held in place by four screws and I don't think it's made to be adjusted. I don't see any slots in the rail holes where it could be moved. So now I figure it's either shifter wear or has something to do with the reverse cable adjustment. When I make the Miller Special Tool 9120 i'll check adjustment of the reverse cable.

 

For those wanting to make a Miller Special Tool 9120 to adjust the manual shifter.

 

Does anyone know what adjustment will make the shifter move to the left about 1/4" to align with 2nd gear instead of going into 4th gear? Is my shifter worn our after 175k? I bought another later model shifter assembly to replace the current one. Don't like spending the $420 needlessly when only an adjustment would fix the problem.

 

This may be a dumb question but, can you swap the new guide and ramp into the old assembly?
I've never worked on a M-B Manual trans before, so I don't know what can be swapped. I've only played around with old school 4 speeds. I wish that I could be of more help.

 

Maybe but I think better to replace whole assembly. Don't really wanna mess with something that shouldn't be messed with!

 

Your absolutely right. A complete swap would be best.

 

Made the Miller Special Tool 9120 this morning and installed it on the shifter for fit. I'll need this tool when I change out the shifter assembly.

 

Nice work!

 

Background on newly acquired car. 1st to 2nd was very sloppy and had to hunt for it and hoping it didn't go into 4th. So this morning I put her up on ramps and found the "reverse cable orange button was out and not pushed in" which is normal. I used my Miller Special Tool 9120 on the shifter, crawled under and pushed the orange button "IN" unlocking the cable. Per PDF manual, I then pushed the release button which pops the orange button out and locks the cable adjustment. Still no worky! I just don't understand the mechanics of the reverse cable adjustment. When adjusting the cable it's in neutral and not even in reverse gear!

Might be time to let a transmission mechanic diagnose and tell me how many thousands it going to cost me! My gut feeling is that it's not synchronizers.

UPDATE 9/14/25: My "gut feeling" was right. Reverse lockout cable adjustment was the problem and not bad synchros in the tranny. She runs soooo sweeet now shifting all gears properly. Unlock cable 1st, then use Miller Tool 9120 on shifter then jiggle the shifter to let it self align and then lock the cable down.

 

Why did.t you change shifters?

 

After looking at both the new and the old, I'm now thinking the shifter is not the problem. Plus it's a "lot" of work that may not be necessary. I have till 28 September to return it should I need to. Gonna get a transmission shop," for a fee I'm sure," to troubleshoot my problem. If tranny is the problem then I can change it with the help of a lift and tranny jack at the Base Auto Hobby Shop. Used lower milage tranny is around $800. I'd rather have a 4-speed tranny than a 6-speed. Not going on the Autobahn!

 

Two major problems to work on are the transmission and the hatch back floor pan. One minor, but necessary repair, is the steering drag linkage assembly. The idler arm "knuckle" is bad. Need to bleed brakes and clutch to get all the moisture out. This is a pic of the fluid I bled out of the clutch. Notice all the water at the bottom! Being the brakes and clutch use the same reservoir, it has contaminated the clutch again from brake fluid going back up into the reservoir.

 

Changed the cabin air filter this morning. Do you think it was time to change or maybe wait 5 or 6 more years? I had already cleaned under the cowling, last week, when I removed the security alarm module. No more dying battery.

 

After talking to a trusted shop mechanic, he said my problem is a bad clutch! If that is true, what would that have to do with locating 2nd gear? There is no clutch disk slipping or problem with other the gears! What would mechanically change the operation of 2nd gear? Anyone have any insight about this? I hate just throwing money at this project car until the problem disappears.
So I've ordered a $388 clutch kit.

Former owner told me last year, when another engine installed, the flywheel was resurfaced but did not know if they put new disk and pressure plate in. The shop he had it in kept the car six months, $7500 bill and was still unusable.

 

Sometimes you just have to know when to let go and move on.

 

Not yet as the FUN has just begun! I really don't have hardly any money in the project. My problem is I've never worked on transmissions! It's a new learning curve for me and understanding their mechanicals. I'm not frustrated at all and will have this nice car shifting properly. The car really runs great with good interior and everything works just fine. After all this it is a rescue project!