What is wrong with my hunk of metal?

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What is wrong with my hunk of metal?

I don't really know where this question would fit, hehe, moving on...

My car (93 Dodge Shadow) has "eaten" my second and fourth gears (it's a standard). By eaten, I mean it will go into first and third, but when I try to shift into second it doesn't "catch" and it feels like I'm shifting into a sponge...then all it does is rev. Anybody know WHY or how this can be fixed? (I'm assuming it's the tranny, but that makes me sad so I'm trying to find another thing that'll fix it).
Thanks Thanks

eeun's picture
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It could be a number of thing

It could be a number of things...most of them, unfortunately, expensive.

Cheapest could be a shift linkage adjustment. If the shifter is out of adjustment, the stick may not be moving fully into gear, though I suspect you'd get grinding noises at the very least. There should be adjustment nuts above or under the stick to set the left/right and front/back position.

Didn't work for me, but my car is a bit different. When I try to shift into fifth on my Metro, there's a 'wall' there, so unlike you I can't even move the stick into that position.

A complete aside...the Dodge Shadow is the #1 stolen car in my area. Smile

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sad times

well thats not fun at all. if it's not the shift linkage i gather i'll be buying a new clutch or a new tranny? thats really amusing that my car is the number one stolen car where you're from. i figure if someone else can figure out how to get it to go farther than a block (hah!) they can have it hehe.

The Czar's picture
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Joined: Dec 20 2003 - 10:38
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Chrysler & Shift Linkage

I've seen a few cases of this...

Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth Front Wheel Drives of this era have a common problem where the linkage cable either corrodes or just wears out and breaks. It's a standard braided strand cable IIRC and the mounting point on the stick wears through, usually. Sometimes, I have seen it rust, but I live in a landlocked province, so rust isn't as common here as some other places.

Anyway, most commonly, the shifter cable breaks off at the gearshift end, not the transmission end, so that is where I would start. A friend of mine had a 1992 Shadow and his cable snapped off completely. It snapped off at the gearshift. His was worse and he couldn't get into any gears. What we did was take out the centre console, to get at the gearshift. Then I took my soldering gun and soldered the wire into a loop, connected it back to the shifter, and got him home *very* carefully. I believe he had to order a new cable from Chrysler, but I can't remember how much it was.

Until then, you can "sport shift" and take your revs in 1st gear so high that you can jump into 3rd. Not a good thing for your transmission, but a possibility if you're in a crunch.

Cheers,

The Czar

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