Transmission stuck in neutral

[FFRWRX]

This is a WRX 5 speed. Everything was working fine with respect to the engine and tranny. I have been playing around with the linkage and cables and had everything shifting fine. Then I took off the cables to modify them, put them back on, and now the tranny is stuck in neutral. I spent a lot of time adjusting things until I realized that the shifter shaft that sticks out of the tranny won't turn. It will move in and out and click into the 3 positions, but it won't rotate. It rotates a little in the middle position, but not at all when the shaft is all the way in or out. I didn't do anything with respect to the tranny, only spent a lot of time shifting with the engine off. Could a shifter fork somehow gotten damaged or jambed? And how much trouble it is to get at the mechanism to see what it is? I've run the engine and spun the wheels, but made no difference.

thank you,

Rick

137773

[Ajzride]

Should only rotate when in the middle position, not in front or back position. It only rotates a tiny bit, maybe 5 degrees in each direction.

[FFRWRX]

Thank you. Maybe I’m just totally confused. Thinking about it after reading what you wrote, maybe I have my cables hooked up wrong. I’ll go and play with it again. I thought it rotated in each position, but why I thought that I’m not sure.

[Ajzride]

Put it in the middle, rock it to the passenger side, and pull it to the rear position. You should hear a click as it hits reverse. When you push it back to the middle and let it rotate back to center, it should click again as the reverse lock-out is released.

[FFRWRX]

Yup, I had my cables reversed. Gives a very strange effect. You can almost feel the gears engaging at the shifter, but not quite. For some reason I was convinced I had them correct and didn't think to try swapping them around.

I owe you a beer.....a Canadian one if you like. :)

Rick