Transmission Wont Go into gear

[beckers0347]

I recently put a new clutch, pressure plate, master cylinder, and slave cylinder with a new throwout bearing into my truck it wasn't fun but I got it, but now my truck won't go into second gear at all and it struggles to go into all the other gears while the truck is off. I have a 1992 Ford Ranger 4x4 with a Mitsubishi FM146

 

[RonD]

Does it shift into 2nd with engine off?

Or while moving, can you shift into 2nd?

If no to both then thats a transmission issue not new clutch issue



A transmission is always connected to the rear wheels, so will always be turning at rear wheel speed
If you are stopped then transmission is at 0 RPMs
The clutch disconnects engine RPMs from Transmission RPMs

The engine is connected directly to the flywheel and pressure plate, they all spin at engine RPMs, lets say 750rpm

The clutch disc is sandwiched in between flywheel and pressure plate, and its connected directly to the transmission(input shaft)

If engine is at 750rpms, and transmission is at 0rpms, then when you want to put trans into a gear, the clutch disc must slow down to 0rpms, period, it must match transmission RPMs
When you press clutch pedal down it should remove the pressure of pressure plate holding clutch disc against the flywheel, this would allow clutch disc to slow down to 0rpms and you can then put it into a gear
If you don't get full travel of the clutch pressure against pressure plate then clutch disc RUBS on flywheel and pressure plate so clutch disc can't slow down to 0rpms and you can't get trans into gear

A new clutch disc is thicker than old one, so you need FULL TRAVEL to release ALL pressure, where before you didn't with thinner clutch disc

With new clutch disc there is no margin of error


Once you are rolling transmission is no longer at 0rpms, so its often easier to shift gears because clutch disc just needs to slow down a bit or speed up a bit, it doesn't need to stop, 0rpms

The "synchros" in a transmission help RPM match the clutch disc RPMs to transmission RPMs, but these are just 4" to 5" discs, the clutch disc is 9" to 11" so it can be hard for the smaller discs to slow down or speed up the larger clutch disc

 

[beckers0347]

Does it shift into 2nd with engine off?

Or while moving, can you shift into 2nd?

If no to both then thats a transmission issue not new clutch issue

No it doesn't go into second at all, what could the issue in the tranmission be because I didn't have this problem before installing the clutch

 

[RonD]

Not to familiar with the FM146
But it is a 5-speed so will have 3 shift rails
1-2
3-4
5-R

Did you need to pull the shifter arm out of the transmission to move trans back to get at the clutch?
On the M5R1 you do
Trans MUST BE in NEUTRAL when you do this or there will be problems re-installing it
But if this happens usually shifter is locked in one gear, not missing only 1 gear

So no not sure on why 2nd chose this time to stop working, I can't see clutch replacement causing internal trans issue, just the shifter arm issue needed when moving the transmission

 

[beckers0347]

Not to familiar with the FM146
But it is a 5-speed so will have 3 shift rails
1-2
3-4
5-R

Did you need to pull the shifter arm out of the transmission to move trans back to get at the clutch?
On the M5R1 you do
Trans MUST BE in NEUTRAL when you do this or there will be problems re-installing it
But if this happens usually shifter is locked in one gear, not missing only 1 gear

So no not sure on why 2nd chose this time to stop working, I can't see clutch replacement causing internal trans issue, just the shifter arm issue needed when moving the transmission

I did need to remove the shifter the first time I removed the tranmission the shift was in forth when I removed it but I put it in neutral before reinstalling the shifter, the second time I removed it, it was in neutral

 

[RonD]

I would pull it out again and see if you can move the shift rod manually to 1st, neutral and 2nd, just to take that off the table

 

[beckers0347]

I did that and it's still the same with the shifter out

 

[RonD]

Then its internal, do the other shift rods move normally?
The synchro for 2nd could be bent so can't slide shift rod forward, wild guess, but can't say how something like that could happen


You can replace with M5R1 from 4.0l 4x4, up to 2011 model, since your speedometer cable is on transfer case
You can use same clutch and I think slave as well, but not sure on slave
The 4.0l did have larger clutch disc but not needed on 2.9l

 

[beckers0347]

That's what I was thinking about doing thank you, I would like to fix this transmission because I'm assuming it's going to be cheaper

 

[RonD]

I would first look at used M5R1s so you have a baseline "worst case" cost

car-part.com is a good place to check your area

Transmission repair often leads to a rebuild, lol, but bearing kits only run $100 usually

 

[beckers0347]

Okay thank you

 

[Dirtman]

Before you go any further, have you tried cursing at it?

 

[beckers0347]

Lol that was every other thing I tried