Hard to shift gears

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Skurneha

New member
Hey just felt like tossing out a forum because I’m not quite sure what kind of action I should take.
So it’s been getting slowly more difficult to change gears recently. Sometimes it’ll be easy and smooth like when I bought it, but sometimes it’s tough and sounds like it grinds. I’ve seen a multitude of reasons for this, like not enough trans fluid or some busted synchros, but I just wanted to know if there was possibly an alltrac reason for this. I think I remember seeing in a post from way in the past that someone’s 4WD system was fucked up and it also messed up shifting and it had something to do with the trans(??)
Any suggestions would be helpful, thank you!
 
C

Corey

Active member
I recently had shifting issues also. It progressively got worse and worse over the span of years to the point where I could no longer even get the car out of neutral while it was running.

It ended up being the clutch pedal adjustment under the dash. Over time the nuts had loosened, and with every gear change the pedal adjustment began to back out little by little, to the point where the clutch would no longer disengage.

So I would recommend you check the pedal adjustment because its very easy to check and adjust before changing out other parts.
 
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Andy

Member
Do not overlook the "Sugar Cube", if and when it gets dirty and stiff shifting gets wacky and may even feel like a bad clutch is causing the stiffness.
 
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Skurneha

New member
I saw old posts about the sugar cube and i could see they had a bunch of pictures and videos except the old account linked to them didn't exist anymore so i couldn't see how to get at it and turn it. I'm more visual than text based when it comes to learning but after i see something once or twice i can usually do it on my own no problem. Is rotating the sugar cube really as easy as reaching in there and turning it or am i just stupid...
 
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Corey

Active member
Hello,

Here are some photos which should help to explain what you're looking for.

Under the rubber cap on the bottom of the shift lever you will find a fastener. Undo this and the lever should come off freely. You may not need to remove the shift cable if you can get enough clearance to rotate the sugar cube.
DSC02100small.JPG


Here is an example of a worn metal sugar cube. The later models came with plastic cubes.
Just rotate yours 90 degrees so the lever is now acting on the unworn surfaces. It's a good idea to apply a little grease. I think I used high pressure moly grease.

DSC02109small.JPG
 
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