Honda Accord, no 3 or 4 gears

[DGXSER]

I have a 2000 Honda Accord, 5 speed manual, 4 cyl engine. My son drives it primarily and I know he tries to be a speed shifter and loves the feel of the G-Forces.

Now the problem, every now and then the car has been harder to get into third or fourth gears, you had to try a couple times, or push harder than usual. Never got the grinding sound, just more force required.

Now, the car will not go into third or fourth gears at all. Slips into 1st, 2nd, 5th, or reverse like butter. But you would have to push much harder than I think the components can take to get it to go into 3rd or 4th. The shifter slides over, starts to go up or down, maybe 1/4" of travel or so, then it feels like you hit a brick wall, will NOT move any further.

Is this likely to be a shift linkage, cable issue? or is this an internal transmission issue?

[jwhughes3]

Synchronizer gears are worn out. Likely from playing Mario Andretti...

You can try to get by...try performing all upshifts to 3rd and 4th at exactly 2500 RPM. This is the sweet spot in the accord transmission and should slide in easily...

I used to like to shift my accord (78) sans clutch up and down with this trick after starting in 1st with clutch.

Its a teardown job. Better to buy a used gearbox and swap...put in a fresjh clutch same time tranny is out and Bob's your uncle.

If you just buy the synchro gears they likely are not very expensive but a special order item. I did that same job once on another Honda Prelude. The synchro gear is soft to wear before the hardened tranny gears.

John

[motoman]

Synchronizer gears are worn out. Likely from playing Mario Andretti...

You can try to get by...try performing all upshifts to 3rd and 4th at exactly 2500 RPM. This is the sweet spot in the accord transmission and should slide in easily...

I used to like to shift my accord (78) sans clutch up and down with this trick after starting in 1st with clutch.

Its a teardown job. Better to buy a used gearbox and swap...put in a fresjh clutch same time tranny is out and Bob's your uncle.

If you just buy the synchro gears they likely are not very expensive but a special order item. I did that same job once on another Honda Prelude. The synchro gear is soft to wear before the hardened tranny gears.

John

As John stated.......trashed the syncros teeth. They are usually softer being bronze. Also as he said, the rpm 'sweet spot' will work not using clutch, but still hard on syncros as I'm sure he found out

[DGXSER]

Just to be sure (cause I really do not want to tear this tranny out), there is no grinding, like the gears are not meshing as I would suspect if the synchros were out, there is just pressure.

Oh I miss the days of my 70 F250 when I could drop the tranny without a jack and in less than two hours. Just bench press it in and out.

[motoman]

Just to be sure (cause I really do not want to tear this tranny out), there is no grinding, like the gears are not meshing as I would suspect if the synchros were out, there is just pressure.

Oh I miss the days of my 70 F250 when I could drop the tranny without a jack and in less than two hours. Just bench press it in and out.

There WON'T be any grinding of gear teeth.....bad syncros. The cure: at this age, ONLY thing that refreshes memory to make a better choice with mechanical things, is there pockest get emptied for at least SOME of the cost from a summer job. Funny how that works, and guarentee it works! BTDT, raisin' two boys and a daughter, and all three being Moto-x racers and 'leadfoots', with daughter having to do everything her big bro's did, and better if she could. Looks of a diva were decieving, trust me. Like John said, least costly option is to swap tranny out for a used one. Sill a bummer having to pull whole left side of car apart to R&R.

[DGXSER]

After messing with it I have confirmed the diagnosis. It now goes into third gear just fine, but it will still not go into fourth gear. If you try hard to get it to go into fourth gear, it is now VERY hard to get it to go into third gear. Once you get it to go into third, it will continue to go into third without issue, unless you try for fourth again.

So, that would indicate the synchro to fourth is fubarred and jambs up the shift sleeve when you try to force fourth gear. Get it loose of the slope to fourth, and it slides easily to third.

Soooo....now I know it is a tranny removal in my future. Or just let him drive with no fourth gear.

[jwhughes3]

Its one way to limit speed to 60.....

John

[jwhughes3]

Its one way to limit speed to 60.....

Think of it as a safety "feature".

John

[WMarshy]

...

Soooo....now I know it is a tranny removal in my future. Or just let him drive with no fourth gear.

You might already know this... no 4th only means one thing when you are his age, run 3rd gear harder, skip 4th and go to 5th. I suspect 3rd will present issues next.

[DGXSER]

You might already know this... no 4th only means one thing when you are his age, run 3rd gear harder, skip 4th and go to 5th. I suspect 3rd will present issues next.

His age, he!!, what do you think I was doing!!

At least I can let him use up his excess testosterone on one transmisison only.