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MT - Misaligned Reverse Gear?

2540 Views 11 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  Scoobdude
Hey guys,

For those of you with a manual, has anyone experienced sort of a "dead spot" when trying to engage reverse?

By a "dead spot", I'm referring to a position with the shift lever in between neutral and reverse.

Basically, twice now I have went to shift into reverse, the backup camera engages, and when I go to let the clutch out I am still in neutral but the shifter remains in the dead spot.. It doesn't pop back to neutral or anything.

If I push in the clutch, take it out of the dead spot, and go to engage reverse again everything is all good.

Going to try and schedule an appointment but just wondering if anyone has experienced this or if this might be cause the car is still so new (731 kms).

Thanks.

PS - shoulnt we have a Problems/Help section too?
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Dealer deffinately , and maybe contact 6th element about the shifter bushing kits . The factory rubber is said to be really soft .
I think this would be more of a general question but I will ask about having a section made
Well I think a help section is good for any forum. I know our cars are all still so new but problems can arise at any time.

Im going in for the first oil change in another 500 kms and will mention it then.

Thanks
Try unscrewing the knob a little bit and see if that changes anything for you. Have seen a few that fully tightened it would cause some funky issues with going into reverse
The only thing I can think of sense I have had this happen. It's not in the transmission. It's more of a flat spot on the shifter base where the reverse lockout pushes on and then kinda makes the shifter "stick" with the tension of the reverse lockout knob pushing down
Make sure you have the reverse lockout pulled up completely before you go to reverse so it doesn't drag or hang up
Yeah I've had that happen once. The switch to detect reverse for the camera(and likely the reverse lights) gets triggered but it's not quite in gear yet. I've encountered this on other manuals I've owned too(just w/o a backup cam). Sometimes you'd get in a position where you'd have to go to 1st and move forward an inch to use 1st's syncro to line things up and get into reverse since reverse doesn't have one.
Yeah thanks guys. I did more research and the lack of a reverse synchro like nouse mentioned seems to be the most common reason.

I've also noticed that if you're not stopped completely you'll get bit a of grind when going from first to reverse or vice versa.

No manual I've ever had was this picky, but its not something that really bothers me.

Gonna mention it just to have on file during my first oil change.
Reverse gears work different because the idler gear is involved to change direction. And I have yet to see a synchro on reverse. Basically in your fwd gears they are already meshed with another gear or in some cases a solid shaft that has the rest of the gears on it called a cluster gear. Synchros try to speed match the couplers to other teeth on the gear so that it may engage it.

Reverse however has a great that actually moves into place. Hence why it is always be rough if the car is moving. Sorry could not find a good video to demonstrate.
Here is a picture of my wrx transmission. The counter shaft had been removed but you can see the reverse idler gear. The case broke where it holds the gear as you can see. But the synchro is what had the teeth that mesh with the idler gear. But basically those gears sliding into mesh it what causes the horrible getting sound you hear. Pretty sure the forte transmission is different though.
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