Hello, I have a 94 Bronco that I swapped a 5 speed into. Rebuilt the transmission and the forks looked really good so I didn't mess with the top cover besides replacing the rubber plugs in the back with steel ones.

Truck ran like a dream after. Went away on a school trip and let my dad use it to go to work. Came back and as always when you lend something to someone, something was broken. I could barely get first gear to engage. It wouldn't really slip or pop out of gear but it's obvious that the sleeve is barely overlapping the gear. 2nd gear goes in normal.

Another thing is that the shifter will not return to center in neutral. In these transmissions, when you have the shifter in the left or right side of the H pattern in the middle neutral section, it will return to the center by itself. Mine however only does so for the right side, it just dangles freely side to side between the left side and the middle of the neutral section.

I need this truck, as I mentioned its still functional but I'm not just going to leave it like that and pretend it's fine. That is why I have come here to ask if anyone has any experiences with these symptoms or any idea to what could be the problem specifically. I'm assuming there is a spring that stopped working or a pin that fell out.

Thanks

 

I could barely get first gear to engage. It wouldn't really slip or pop out of gear but it's obvious that the sleeve is barely overlapping the gear. 2nd gear goes in normal.

The fork for first is also the fork for second, so it doesn't seem like the problem is the fork. Your problem my be due to a sloppy loose shifter. There is a repair kit for the shifter that many have installed that cured similar issues. Is your shifter loose and sloppy?

 

Not really, in fact I installed that repair kit and it really helped. My dad mentioned that he thinks maybe a spring broke inside the top cover? Not sure

 

Couple of things you could do depending on how you want to proceed. You can drain the trans fluid and see if any parts have fallen in there like a pin or ball bearing. If you find one or you don't, then it would be time to pull the 10 bolt top cover. If there was a part in the drain you can replace it and add the fluid, if it is still good, into the top cover area. If there was no part then see if you can identify what is causing the problem in the case or cover and fix it and then add fluid back through the top. You can also see how much fluid you have and perhaps your metal plug replacements have failed causing fluid loss. It loses fluid from the plugs when it is under pressure and running so you usually don't see it on the ground where you park it.
One tip is to not rest your hand on the shifter when driving. It causes the fork to slide forward and then premature fork wear is going to happen.

 

yes this is probably what I will do, once exams are over for this semester. I have another transmission that I took a countershaft from when I rebuilt mine; I will look at the top cover for it and disassemble it to know what kind of internals it has. Ill take notes and pictures of them, then pull my top cover off then see if Im missing any internals. It's possible that if something did fall off its in the bottom of the case so I'll drain her first. thanks for the help

 

Take a look at the fluid level in the clutch master cylinder, if it gets to low it has a hard time going into gear or won't go in at all. Had that problem on my 89 with the 5 speed.

 

Been a while but I wanted to close out this thread with a conclusion in case anyone else runs into this. What ended up being the issue was the fork for first and second was messed up by the previous owner. I pulled off the 10 bolt cover and you could see the one of the fork "prongs" had been eaten up and some filler welds had chipped away on the side of first, hence why second gear worked normally and first was barely going into gear. Replacing the fork fixed the issue. Looking back, I should have noticed the damage on the fork as the answer would have been obvious. Inspect your trans closely.

As for the shifter not returning to center: some springs in the shifter tower on either side of the shifter had buckled. I pulled them out to replace and the shifter felt springy again returning to center of neutral. It was just a coincidence that both these issues occurred at the same time, they had no correlation to each other.

 

Check the clutch pedal assembly bushings, mine looked ok however if they are worn with play that will make life very complitcated, trust me, these old rigs need some things done wheather we think we can get by or not

 

Umm… reread the post before yours. The OP came back after four years to say what was done to fix the problem.

 

OOOpsie,,,,