I admit I have not had much time to really understand this car, so my question may be really ignorant, but I will ask anyway. I suddenly developed a problem shifting from 1st to 2nd gear. In fact 1st to 3rd became difficult. No gear crunching, just does not want to slip into gear. Standing still, motor running, no problem, shifts fine. Only when I am driving and trying to shift normally do I have the problem. One time, when it did go into second, it actually went into reverse. Fortunetely I felt it before it was fully engaged, and depressed the clutch before the sound of angry metal bean. Then when I moved the car, there was a large puddle of clean clear oil located at a point at the front of the engine block. So, what is the bad news?? Thanks
Your selector forks need adjustment, and you have a seal leak. Not the end of the world. They are very nice cars......lucky guy!
if your passanger side motor mounts have gone bad, the engine and tranaxle will torque to one side under load and bind up the shift linkage making you go into another gear. the harder you rev the engine, and the harder it tweaks to one side, the more pronounced the problem will be.
You need to determine what the oil is, trans or motor. The shift rod has a seal in the front of the motor and also the large trans oil drain plugs are in the front, you could have a diff seal leak as well. Check the fluid level for the trans which in the back of the motor under the transfer gears to see how low it is, you can fill the trans from the transfer case plug. Don't drive the car until you check where the leak is, transmission repairs are expensive if you are low on oil and seize a few bearings.
Thank you for the replies. The oil puddle is not from the engine, so I assume it is from the transmission. I can not tell from the manual where the trans oil check is located.
There probably isn't one, you have to just make sure everything is topped off correctly. You need to fill tranny with approved fluid to the bottom of the plug on the back end. The seal they are talking about is on the shift shaft which is a shaft going from the shifter into the trans/engine, there is a rubber boot in the area where it meets the case, and that is where it leaks. It would be where the front of the engine is located. I think you have a hydraulic clutch too, so it could be hydraulic/brake fluid. Check the level in the master cylinder, its one system.
The trans overfill plug is located in the back of the motor under the transfer gear case, you need to crawl under the car to see it, its either a large hex bolt or allen bolt, you fill from the top of the transfer case by removing a smilar size allen plug and watch for it to drain out the overfill plug. If you ran the car significantly low from a leak I would completely drain the trans oil and replace with new, the plugs are very large size bolts, if you don't have the proper tools to remove them I'd check the fill level and top it off if neccessary and take it in to a mechanic.