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Shifter movement while driving down the road.
This was done on my 93 Eagle Talon AWD.
Ever pay attention to your stick shift while you are driving down the road? Try this, drive at cruising speed in 5th gear and let off the gas and then give it gas again. Did the shifter stay still or move about 1/2" forward than back again. If it stayed still like its supposed to then great. If it moves like above in 5th, you should check it out. Any movement like this is bad, but its easy to fix. It took me about 2 hours to accomplish this.
Thanks to some great members of NW-DSM my problem was solved instantly. Now let me tell you what you are going to need:
Ratchet & breaker with extensions.
10, 12, 36 mm & 5/8" socket
Flathead screw driver
Philips screw driver.
Jack and jack stand.
2.3 quarts of 80W-90W gear oil
Drain pan
Hammer (Maybe!)
Hi temp RTV (Red) gasket maker
Flat file (possibly)
And a few other metric sockets...
Torque wrench good for 115 ft lbs.
Legalese: Use these instructions at your own risk, they worked for me, but your circumstances may differ.
First you are going to put the car in reverse and to jack up the front passenger side of the car and place it on a jack stand so you can remove the tire, remove the wheel.
Next you are going to remove remove two bolts and two plastic screws that hold the black plastic splash shield on. Its the one located behind the wheel just in front of the transaxle side cover. Once you remove the splash shield you will see this:
Remove the fill bolt, then remove the drain bolt to drain the gear oil out of the transaxle.
Once the gear oil is drained out you can remove all of the bolts holding the cover one. (11 or 12 bolts)
Next comes the interesting part, if you look on the side of the transaxle you will notice that those bolts were holding on a two part case. You only want to separate the cover from the case. The case is stuck on there pretty good and remember it is aluminum so you don't want to beat it too hard! I basically used a thin flathead screw driver and used it with a hammer to pry the case apart. Be careful not to hammer to hard since there is no gasket, the case and cover are just sealed with RTV.
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(6/30/1999)Another tip from (Aaron Tak -
turbonet@pacbell.net) on removing the cover:
There's an eyelet of some sort by the oil-drain plug, so after you initially drain the oil, use a very large flat tip screw driver or a flat file and push it inward against the eyelet perpendicularly, it will *pop* and there you have it. Don't forget to put that oil drain pan under it as A LOT more oil will come out once you slowly loosen it off.
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Once you pry the case off which is the hardest part, you will see this:
Chances are that the top 36 mm nut is on finger tight, mine was. You will notice that there are two slots on the top input shaft and that there are two dimples (dents) on the sides of the nut. There is only one slot on the bottom shaft.
Now clean up the existing gasket goop off of the cover and transaxle. If you beat the heck out of the cover trying to get it off make sure it still has a smooth surface on the cover side. I used a flat file on the dinged area to ensure the case still had a flush fit.
Now you will need to go to the driver side splash shield behind the wheel and remove the round rubber grommet so you can get to the bolt that will secure the crank shaft so the engine doesn't rotate while you are torqueing down those 36 mm nuts. I used a socket and a large 1/2" drive breaker bar. Just put the socket on the bolt and have the breaker bar pointing toward the floor.
Go back to the passenger side. Now you will need that torque wrench and a 36 mm socket. If the nuts are real loose you can just torque them down. If they appear tight, loosen them first then torque them back down. Slowly start to tighten the top nut, you will notice your breaker bar on the other side of the car will start to turn until it is resting against the lower control arm on the suspension. Now you will be able to torque this nut to 108-110 ft lbs. (tight!). Do the same to the lower nut.
Now that they are tight, you can use a flathead screw driver or a chisel and hammer to pound some dimples into the nut (in the slots on the shaft) to prevent the nut from coming loose again. Two dimples for the top nut, one for the bottom.
While you have the cover off, inspect the inside of it for wear if any of the nuts were loose. If they were loose for a long period of time eventually they might wear a hole in the cover, not to mention the other damage to the transaxle that would occur if the nuts came off.
Make sure the case and cover have a clean and dry surface. Apply the RTV to the transaxle side and put the cover back on.
Put the bolts back in and torque to spec. Install the drain bolt. Once the cover is on wait at least one hour for the RTV to dry before adding the gear oil.
Now you can clean up, remove the breaker bar from the crank shaft bolt.
After at least an hour of drying time you can add the gear oil in the filler hole until it starts to flow out the hole, about 2.3 quarts. Make sure you don't have any obvious leaks, and then you can put the rest of the car back together.
Along with my shifter not moving any more on my 93 Eagle Talon AWD, I have noticed smoother shifter in all gears because of this fix. Those two 36 mm nuts hold all the gears together on the input shaft, so its easy to see why your shifter would move when they are loose.
More tips & comments from other people who have performed this job:
(06/30/1999) (Aaron Tak -
turbonet@pacbell.net):
I had to do this job twice due to me not putting in the *wave spring* correctly when assembling them back. The *wave spring* is located inside the cover on top spindle, when you look at it, there're 2 *pointy* thingy sticking out, make sure to have those inside the *cut out section* of the circular ring it rests on.
Last updated: 05/01/2001