Lost 1st gear

[mzmtg]

1st gear just quit working in my X. I went to accelerate from a stop sign and there was a bit of a lurch and now first gear will not engage.

Luckily, I can pull away in 2nd most of the time & 3rd through 5th are working fine too.

Any tips on what the root cause might be?

Sent from my StarTac

[muadeeb]

Pull the drain plug and see if there's metal on it.

[intender]

is it like something is keeping you from physically putting it into gear, or can you get it into gear and then nothing happens. and grinding or other nasty noises associated with it?

My first guess in any situation of a single gear not working, particularly if you cant get it into the gear is synchronizers. I have never tried to change them, and other than knowing what they are couldnt tell you much else.

first things to check would be your clutch fluid reservoir and make sure it isnt low, and then make sure some kind of debris hasnt gotten around the shifter linkage and blocking it. I had a rock end up binding my shifter linkage in a old car and could not get it in reverse no matter what I did.

[mzmtg]

When I try to engage first normally, there's no noise and no movement of the truck.

If I lean hard on the shifter, it will grind like it's partially engaging,, but I can't push the lever hard enough to get it all the way engaged.

Sent from my StarTac

[mzmtg]

Originally Posted by muadeeb

Pull the drain plug and see if there's metal on it.

The first time I drained it (about 4 years and 50k miles ago) there were some disturbingly large chunks of metal on the drain plug. But the truck ran fine up until then and up until yesterday.

Sent from my StarTac

[muadeeb]

http://www.xterranation.org/showthre...ission-rebuild

At least you'll know what you're in for...

[RacerXXL]

Originally Posted by muadeeb

http://www.xterranation.org/showthre...ission-rebuild

At least you'll know what you're in for...

For anyone thinking about tackling a manual gearbox rebuild take a long look at that thread. Very complex and requires access to specialty tools the average guy does not have.

[mzmtg]

Originally Posted by RacerXXL

For anyone thinking about tackling a manual gearbox rebuild take a long look at that thread.

I could probably do that, but I don't have the time or the garage space.

Looks like finding a used or rebuilt trans is my plan.

Sent from my StarTac

[mzmtg]

On the upside, having no 1st gear to use has improved my fuel economy by 5%.

It went from an average of 18.2 mpg to 19.2 on the last tank.