Just purchased this car a couple of weeks ago. It drives out nice and trans. works great until I use reverse. I have to hold it in to keep it from kicking out. It also makes a bad clunking noise when backing up. Sounds like a very bad u-joint type of sound. I took it to shop and things checked out. They said u-jounts , motor mounts and trans. mount looks good. I called the past owner and he claimed he had new motor mounts put in a couple of months ago. He did say he had to always hold it in reverse but noticed the noise getting worse. Im going to raise it up tomorrow and check fluid etc. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

if a manual is popping out of reverse, its likely that the reverse gear forks or gear-dog-thing (its not a synchro, but it perform the same function) is shot. basically tranny rebuild time.

 

Kinda what I thought. I have a 86 parts car but with an automatic. I am assuming rebuilt manuals are hard to find. I know where I can get a 84 manual for 500.00 used. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

which manual do you have?

M45 - 4 speed
M46 - 4+OD (basically an updated M45 with a Laycock J unit overdrive)

(there's also a M47 5-speed used on a few late model 2/7/9 cars)

here's the transmission repair manual for the m45/m46.
http://www.k-jet.org/files/greenbook...ns_m45_m46.pdf


yah know, your problem might just be in the shift gates, something worn and its not going all the way into reverse.

 

My car is a 90 240 dl. It has overdrive. I had a shop check out shifter. This tranny sounds terrible in reverse. I can probably rebuild it myself but I am limited on time. Putting an auto in a simple swap?

 

autos require a 'flex disk' instead of a flywheel/pressure plate. you would need the flexdisk from a 1989+ as you have LH2.4 which requires timing holes on the flywheel or flexdisk for the crank position sensor.

you would need the drive shaft that comes with the automatic as they are different lengths, and of course you'd need the shifter linkage. the overdrive electrics are different but I'm not sure if this is just swapping out a different relay, or what. automatics have a throttle pressure cable (often called a kickdown cable) thats attached to the throttle 'spool' (I don't know if its a different spool or not).

of course, you'd need to remove the clutch pedal and rest of the clutch linkage.

a whole lot more people want to go the other way, auto to manual. hah. 240 autos are quite sluggish.

 

Im probably going to rebuild the manual trans. Thanks for the advice and help.

 

having watched a couple transmission rebuilds, cleanliness is key. totally clean all crud off the outside of the tranny before opening it, and do the work on a clean table covered in clean lint free rags. keep everything inside well oiled with clean ATF. I skimmed that tranny manual, it seems to cover pretty much everything.