AE80/AE82 C-series gearbox not engaging gears.

[carbonboy]

Howdy all, it's been a frustrating weekend. I just pulled the C40 4 speed manual out of my AE80 Corolla & replaced it with a C50/52 5 speed (not 100% sure which) & I am having issues with selecting gears. The clutch engages & disengages fine in the gears I can select, I don't think it would require bleeding as I didn't disconnect the line during the process?

The gearshifter will not move across to the left (looking down at the gearshift H-pattern) enough to be in the 1st or 2nd gear position with that shift cable connected, nor will it engage reverse when all the way to the right & pulled back. When that selector cable's disconnected the shifter does have the full range of movement though. This is the cable on the passenger side of the gearshift, the other cable mounts underneath the gearshift rod. The cable will physically not move enough to allow it to go fully left, so I swapped the cables over to a set from an AE82 Twin Cam, same problem. I thought it may be the gearshifter itself & swapped over to a Twin Cam item, still the same problem.

So from what I can tell, 3rd & 4th on the gearshift position is 1st & 2nd in the gearbox, while 5th & reverse on the gearshift position is 3rd & 4th in the gearbox.

Could I have bent a selector arm (where the cables connect to on the gearbox) somehow? Have I had something in the wrong postion when hooking the cables up? They can only be hooked up one way at the gearshifter & they don't cross over at any point, so are in correctly. Does the bracket for the cables on the gearbox have anything to do with it? Or could the gearbox be kaput?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[convertableTA23]

Can you select the gears at the box with the cables disconected, i would bet not. If that is so, the problem is with the gearbox internally provided the gearshift arms aren't hitting on anything externally............

Probably not the news you want though

[carbonboy]

Can you select the gears at the box with the cables disconected, i would bet not. If that is so, the problem is with the gearbox internally provided the gearshift arms aren't hitting on anything externally............

Probably not the news you want though

Gearshift arms hitting anything.....no, damn.

I tried to move the gear selector arm by hand to where the cable would be pushing it (cable disconnected) & it won't go all the way. F**k.

You're right, not the news I wanted but at least it doesn't appear to be anything I've done aside from bolting up a shagged gearbox. Have dripped enough sweat this weekend, it can wait until after work tomorrow.

[convertableTA23]

I'm not a expert on this exact box, but is probably rooted beyond what a wrecker box is worth, like most rooted fwd boxes, hope you didn't buy a wreck for just this....

On the plus side, you know what to do now and in what order. If it makes you feel any better just the other week i put a new clutch and concentric slave in a little mitsi light truck, got the box and everything back in, put the clutch hose onto the concentric slave and the bellhousing filled up with clutch fluid, had to do the whole job over again. At least it was for work so i was getting paid

[carbonboy]

I'm not a expert on this exact box, but is probably rooted beyond what a wrecker box is worth, like most rooted fwd boxes, hope you didn't buy a wreck for just this....

On the plus side, you know what to do now and in what order. If it makes you feel any better just the other week i put a new clutch and concentric slave in a little mitsi light truck, got the box and everything back in, put the clutch hose onto the concentric slave and the bellhousing filled up with clutch fluid, had to do the whole job over again. At least it was for work so i was getting paid

No, no wreck purchased or major amount of cash laid out so more an annoyance than anything. On the upside (due to my recent practice) I managed to get the 5 speed out, the 4 speed back in & everything bolted back up in under 5 hours by myself. I'm not a mechanic so pretty stoked, it could've just been that I really wanted to get out of the bloody rain though!

I've been sent a link to a thread created by The Witzl regarding AE1xx shifters, so might get myself ahold of one of those & do a dummy setup to make sure it works before bolting it into the car.