Ok, so I was at work when I got a call from my wife saying that the car was stuck in gear. I left to go pick her up and this is how it was explained to me. She was driving in 4th gear and coming up to a stop light so she pressed in on the clutch and came to a stop. When she tried to shift into first to take off it would not go. She could shift into 2nd and 4th but not 1st or 3rd. She tried a few times and then the shifter just became loose. I looked at the cables connected to the trans and told her to shift gears to see if maybe it was a problem with the cables but they move without any problems. I got in to see what the shift pattern felt like and there wasn't one. If the shifter was in position for 2nd gear you could slide it over to 4th without going to the position for neutral and the same thing for 1st and 3rd. Luckily the car was stuck in 2nd gear so I could take off and drove it back to my apartment. This is an 84 4cyl 4speed. Only problem with the trans before this was the 4th gear syncro was out. Ay ideas as to what could be wrong? I am thinking the clutch fork but I don't know.

Yea I'm going to guess it's something internal to the transmission, but the shifter bracket could have broken too.

BTW-Is your 4-speed an M19 or MY8? (Performance or econo?)

[This message has been edited by mattwa (edited 05-31-2012).]

Not positive but I am pretty sure it is the performance with the 4.10 gears.

Yea, it's most likely the 4.10. The econo's are so hard to find...kinda looking for one.

Well I have 2 other 4 speeds and a 1 Getrag not installed in anything right now. I have two other 4 speeds installed in an 85 and 86 GT so I may have one, who knows.

quote Originally posted by Marine1981: Well I have 2 other 4 speeds and a 1 Getrag not installed in anything right now. I have two other 4 speeds installed in an 85 and 86 GT so I may have one, who knows.

Sorry if you know this but the Econo 4-speed was only in 84...and only about 7,000 of them were made.

Yeah, I knew that but you never know what might have been swapped out. My 85 GT was a race car at one time so who knows what was changed out on it.

I can empathize, I've had 2 4 speeds doing pretty much the same thing. Hoping to get a 5 speed installed within the next week.

Does anyone have any ideas or should I just tear into it?

heres an exploded view maybe itll help you figure it out.

Pin came out on shift arm......Had this issue in another 4 speed....

See https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/121962.html if you wanted to take it apart. They are very simple inside.

Nate

If the pin on the shift lever that's slipped out of the groove on the shift shaft, there's no need to take it apart. If you don't know what I mean, then let me know and I'll take and post a photo to show you.

quote Originally posted by MstangsBware: Pin came out on shift arm......Had this issue in another 4 speed....

Thanks Poe, I heard what you were saying yesterday but I was driving and didn't catch All of it.

This is a 4 speed Muncie for an '86 V6 but it is very similar to your transmission as well;



When you look carefully at the levers on the transmission, you'll notice that one of them is supposed to move the shaft in and out of the transmission (red arrow) as you pivot the shift lever (green arrow). The way the lever pulls the shaft in and out is by means of a small tooth (blue arrow) that fits in a groove on the side of the the shaft:



Often what happens over the years is that the little tooth on the lever gets worn down and slips out of the groove. You can repair the tooth... just remove the lever by disconnecting the shift cable, pulling out a spring pin on the lever's pivot shaft, sliding out the pin and removing the lever altogether. This can all be done with the transmission in the car. Be careful trying to remove the pivot pin as they are known to get stuck pretty good and if you force it, part of the pot metal bracket it's attached to can break right off. Better off soaking the pivot pin in penetrating oil for a day or so. Once you get it off, inspect the tooth (blue arrow below) for wear and tear, and bring it to a welding shop to have them weld a new tooth on if it's worn off.



(Edited photo for consistent terminology)

[This message has been edited by Bloozberry (edited 06-01-2012).]

I'm guessing this would explain a situation where the tranny won't shift because the select wouldn't be moving it into the proper position for 1-2 or 3-4 shifting?

Yep.

Thanks Bloo, I will look into that as well.

Well that was not the problem. Now I have a choice to make. The car that I need to repair is an 84 SE. Runs and drives great except for a little blow by. I have an 85 parts car that has a 4cyl 5 speed Isuzu. The car has no wiring harness so I can not crank it to test drive it around to make sure everything is fine. I have an 88 Duke 5 speed Isuzu that I have heard crank but the car had no throttle cable and the clutch master cylinder was empty so I couldn't drive it around. I have a Getrag 5 speed in unknown condition that is sitting on the floor of my storage unit and two other 4 speeds of unknown condition a few hours away. I also have an 85 2.8 V6 4 speed I would like to put into it but I am not sure how difficult it would be to do all of the wiring required to install it. So, what would you guys do if it were your car? Thanks, Ben

[This message has been edited by Marine1981 (edited 06-03-2012).]

Well if you stick with a 4 speed you won't have to swap your shifter or cables. As far as wiring, I would think that would be the least of your worries with a stick. Because of the amount of work involved in the swap you'd be best to do whatever you can to confirm the condition and go with the tranny that's going to give you the best odds of going in trouble free and lasting you for a while. I just did a swap and went with a 4 speed to save a bit of trouble and use cables I had just purchased. Now I'm having to bite the bullet and put in a 5 speed because the 4 speed I had put in is pooched. It's all a bit of a crap shoot if you can't test drive, but you can see how well they go through the gears without driving them.

I'm worried it will be a dog if I put the 5 speed in but it would be nice to be able to cruise faster that 65

quote Originally posted by Marine1981: I'm worried it will be a dog if I put the 5 speed in but it would be nice to be able to cruise faster that 65

U will loose some pep from the 5 speed bit will pick up better MPG from the 5 speed. Swapping in another 4 speed would be the direct swap with no changes and pretty straight forward. If u decide to go with the 5 speed Isuzu and don't want to pull one out of a car I have the one that came out of Terrys old car with 94K on it. It is already out of the car and sitting in the shop along with the cables. If u decide to go 5 speed let me k.ow and we can work a deal on this trans...

A duke is going to be a "dog" no matter what transmission you put next to it. Lol.

But the best transmission for the duke, with economy in mind, is the Isuzu. I got 30MPG city and 40MPG highway with a worn old duke with that setup before I tossed it.

Say what you want but the Duke in my 84 has been pretty responsive and has been able to keep up pretty well with the V6's on the cruises we have taken it on. Granted it won't win any races but it has impressed more than a few people. I'm afraid that's going to end when we put the 5 speed in it but I think the trade off will be worth it.

quote Originally posted by Marine1981: Say what you want but the Duke in my 84 has been pretty responsive and has been able to keep up pretty well with the V6's on the cruises we have taken it on..

We went SLOW just for YOU! I knew we were giving you and Becca false hope by doing that....

Yea, you aren't losing anything going from the 4.10 4-speed to the Isuzu 5-speed. You'll gain alot more then you'll lose.

quote Originally posted by revin: We went SLOW just for YOU! I knew we were giving you and Becca false hope by doing that....

Yeah but to you anything that's not a SC 3800 is slow. I could have a jet powered Fiero and you would say it was slow lol

Why would you lose pep going from a 4 speed to a 5? I would think that with the extra gear you would actually get better acceleration because of it. Are they geared that differently that you would actually lose something? I've never driven a 5 speed Fiero (yet) but have found most 5 speeds that I've driven to be better than 4 speeds.

I have driven one other members car that had a 5 speed 4 cyl and the acceleration on it was no where near as good as the 4 speed in this car. Top end will be better but the take off will be a little slower.

V6
V6
V6
V6
V6
V6
V6

Well the first Fiero I test drove was a 4 cyl auto, it was a dog even though it was brand new off the lot. The second one was a V6 4 speed back in '86, also brand new. My current car is a V6 4 speed and I'm quite happy with the power for stock, but it's getting a 5 speed as we speak, so I guess I'll find out for myself!

With a V6 it will probably be fine. The 4 cylinder will be tolerable I hope.

At the very least we'll be saving some gas at cruising speeds

That's the plan.