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Car won't go into reverse

13K views 95 replies 20 participants last post by  jlthunder  
#1 ·
My gt won't shift into reverse. Could the ice storm we are having have frozen the linkage?:confused:
 
#4 · (Edited by Moderator)
.
Check reverse cable adjustment on shift lever or for broke
Not sure that could be it. I backed out of driveway fine then it wouldn't back up at store. I posted before how the cold made shifting sluggish but now it won't go into reverse. I don't think the icy weather is a coincidence as it shifted fine until now. Anybody else.have this problem? :feedback:
 
#3 ·
I will not be participating in this thread. :no:
I will not be participating in this thread. :no:
I will not be participating in this thread. :no:
I will not be participating in this thread. :no:
I will not be participating in this thread. :no:

Dieter
 
#9 ·
"Always park so that you can drive out in a forward going gear."

if thousands of UPS drivers can do it I think George can too........


nevermind I forgot he gets his salsa from new York city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. George if youre reading this lemme tell tell tell you something. Hans, Harold, Gary, and choice few others are the ones on this site you should never use those smileys for...
 
#12 ·
Considering this seems to be an ongoing problem that occurs during cold weather, drain the gearbox and replace with the proper 90 weight gear lube. There's a chance you have moisture in your transmission. Use a pencil torch or heat gun to dry the innards and drive out any residual moisture.
 
#19 ·
Check the cable could have stretched a little.. and your clutch adjustment could be out a tad..

With my sons Manta, Reverse was the first one that would be hard to get into and out of..

One option is with engine OFF, put into reverse.

Then push in clutch and start engine.

If you cant do that, its possible the cable in the shifter broke. Replace the shifter.
 
#24 ·
I had a Ford Taurus (AKA POS) and one day it broke reverse. It broke a lot of the transmission. I have no idea what happened but... Let me tell a story...

A week earlier I was given one of the happiest days of my life. My (then) wife had me served with divorce papers.
I immediately started looking for a new place to live and was driving my POS from place to place.
I lived on a hill and one of the first days, searching for a new place, my POS was unhappy going DOWN the hill. The transmission seemed to lock in second and reverse at the same time but was still going forward. If I stepped on the gas it struggled to move faster. Then with a loud CLUNK it was fine again.
It did this a couple times more over the next couple days.
A week after I got the papers I pulled up in front of a house and put the shifter into PARK. All of a sudden the car shuddered, went BANG, and smoke poured out from under the car. I was thinking CARP!

Well, I cranked and cranked it and it finally started. And ran just fine.
The next house I went to, I parked in the driveway. When I went to leave.... no reverse. FRACK!

You'd think that was the end of the story but, no....

The next day I went to drive and, just for giggles, checked reverse. Worked fine. No probs at all.

EXCEPT for after I got off work... no reverse.

I'll cut the story short by saying this. I had no more problems with the transmission as long as I accepted that the reverse "might" work when it was cold. The colder it was the more likely reverse would work. If it was warm, no reverse, ever.

I drove it for a year after that. 90 miles each way to my GF's house every weekend. It was still a driver when I sent it off to POS heaven.

Who needs reverse?
 
#25 ·
One other thought..

Does your shifter tilt to one side.. (I.E. Manta tranny in a GT)

If so with bad, worn and squissy mounts, it could make getting the shifter over to the R hard. So if the GT was a on a banked area the tranny would shift one way and it works. Banked the other way, it binds and won't.

I seriously doubt it was ice. Unless you drove up onto some snow bank or something. Trannys get hot and thus should melt off any ice.
 
#27 ·
Maybe not.. Tranny shop time..

If its an in and out thing.. have to nail it down first.

1) Does it not go down into R

1B) Is there resistance to the pull knob on the shifter.?

or

2) Does it not get far enough to the left to get in the slot to go down at all ?

or

3) Does it go into gear, but won't move

#1 - Linkage adjustment on transmission, ( there is a nut that adjusts the shaft that slides left to right), Clutch cable adjustment (Pull it out a ring or two and see if that helps), or Clutch adjustment at Bell housing

#1B - Broken shifter

#2 - Tranny mounts, and possibly have a Manta transmission so shifter is not getting far enough to the left.

#3 - Clutch or Yea.. time for Transmission shop..

Bet its #1 - #2 and in that case its something you can fix in the garage.
 
#37 ·
Odd...
I just started my GT. It's about 20 degrees out.
It didn't want to go into gear.
If it was idling and I let out the clutch it died.

I think George unleashed a virus or a voodoo spell or something.
 
#39 ·
Sounds like the shifter works when there is no need to activate the lift lock out release on the shifter. If you can remove lift up the rubber gasket at the base of the shifter and look at the operation of the shifter and the linkage through the hole, when u lift up the reverse ring. You should see if the shifter ring action should allows the reverse lockout to lift high enough to clear the notch on the linkage. If this does not happen it is spring or shifter replacement time and or shifter adjustment time, hope this helps Ron
 
#40 ·
Sounds like george put on a custom shift knob (or at the very least a non factory one).
 
#41 · (Edited)
Could be..

Image


That ring needs to have a 1/4" minimum clear from the collar to the bottom of the shifter ball.

Your know could have worked its way down and is just blocking the ring.. Forgot about that.

If yours is stock.. then you need to pull back the boot and look at the linkage and see if the spring is still there and if mechanism on the bottom comes up when you pull on the ring.
 

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#49 ·
George, the Opel GT Owners Workshop Manual has a section on removing the gearshift and then dismantling it. It looks easy enough to do. It appears you will need a new gear shift knob as the factory shift knob must be removed and discarded. It is installed on the shifter by heating it in hot water. Once the shifter is out you can determine if the spring went or a retaining pin or what have you in the warmth of your home.

I have one of those slush o matics so I can't give you first hand experience in fixing your problem. Needless to say, as an owner of this car, you should have that book on hand. It's a Brooklands publication, Number OWN 727 Opel GT Owners Workshop Manual.

Pretty much everything there was taken from the Opel factory service manual.

Best Regards,
Mike
 
#54 ·
I have a Haynes Opel manta manual. Will that help?
I also bought a workshop manual #14008 OGTS but I misplaced it. Is that the manual you're talking about? I can buy a used shifter but if it.
s a spring or a cable i would rather just fix it
I can't speak for a Manta manual, but I would think both shifter designs are the same.

If you bought the GT Owners Workshop Manual, with a green cover, then yes.

Check out those links, too.

Time to get that shifter out and get to work!