5 speed MT, no reverse

2009 Tacoma 4WD, 2.7L 4 cylinder, 5 speed manual transmission. 100K miles, mostly easy highway, I'm the original owner. The transmission will not go into reverse. No matter what I do. I've been driving a MT for 30 yrs and have rebuilt several so I'm familiar with how they work. It doesn't matter if I put it into other gears first, then try reverse, pump the clutch, put it 1st and move forward a foot then try reverse, stand on my head.... nothing. Clutch and fluid are fine. 1-5th gears work fine, shift fine, truck drives fine in forward gears, no issues, no abnormal noises. I didn't do anything like try to shift into reverse while going forward and I'm the only person who drives this. It did this a few times last week and "fixed itself" but now seems to be done with reverse.

If I try to shift into reverse it will go about halfway and feel "blocked". Sometimes the backup camera will flicker on, sometimes it won't. It's like I'm physically blocked from reverse.

I searched and found results that the bushing on the end of the shifter goes bad so I pulled the shifter and the plastic bushing is fine.

Is it possible the reverse light switch has somehow failed and blocking gear or shifter movement? That doesn't seem likely, but what else? The linkage is inside the transmission, not outside.

Also, are there Toyota service manual PDFs online? That would help me a lot to see the transmission layout to understand what it could be.

TIA.

 

http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old/files/05FSM/repair.html

 

Thanks for the link!

Does anyone know what function the reverse restrict pins serve?

I guess I'll pull the back up lamp switch but doubt I'll be that lucky.

 

Is there any type of body lift on the truck?

 

I'm driving and auto right now. It is my very first automatic transmission in the 30 plus years but I have been driving.
Reverse in my last 2 vehicles was under 5th gear. I could be stopped, put it in 5th gear, and not be able to go into reverse without moving the shifter into neutral where you could go from 1st to 4th. There is a gate that locks out reverse, preventing gear munching. I can't imagine your shifter linkage Etc not having something similar.

 

You probably tried this but didn't mention it, cycling through 4 hi/lo. Even if you find a cure I'd still have it serviced if you're not into diy. Not something you want to have not working reliably. Do you use your parking brake?

 

Yes, I believe this is what the "reverse restrict pins" are that I mentioned earlier. I haven't had time to look at this since I pulled the shifter last weekend, but I noticed the two side restrict pins at that time. I thought they were spring loaded to center the shifter in the center gate, but evidently not. And yes, the 5 speed has reverse below 5th, in the same gate. It is acting exactly like I am physically locked out of reverse.

When I have some time I will take a look at the pins and see what is up with them.

In the exploded diagram on the second page at the below link, you can see there are three reverse restrict pins in this transmission.

http://www.customtacos.com/tech.old...6toyrm/06toypdf/06rmsrc/rm2006ta/03100510.pdf

On the other replies, I typically use my parking brake; only time I might not is if I'm parked on level ground. I hadn't tried cycling the 4WD.

 

Ok, the two side “reverse restrict pins” are indeed spring plungers and they work fine. The reverse switch is also ok; I pulled it out and it operates freely. I’m pushing the clutch in and listening to it squeak every time, then I’m under the truck and looking at the rusting frame… and I have a manual transmission with no reverse. What a POS this truck is.

I guess I’ll pull the transmission tomorrow.

 

Curious to see what you find.

 

Here for outcome.

 

OP, I've been inside the 6 speed but not the 5 speed. Before undertaking major surgery you may want to look at the conditions of the detent balls and springs, etc. that are under the torx screws of the intermediate plate. It might save a bunch of time, or not. I'll look in the current parts manual to see if there are any superseded part for these items as this may provide a hint of where to look.

 

OP, sounds like you have already found the two reverse restrict pins just below the base of the shift tower. There is a third one. Did you find it?

 

Ok, I pulled the transmission and transfer case assy over the weekend.

The transmission was a PITA to pull off the engine. It took small prybars and pulling, lifting, shaking, wiggling; it took 30+ minutes for me to get it free once it was unbolted. Never had that one that took so long but we obviously couldn’t find the spot where it wasn’t bound on the dowel pins / clutch / pilot bearing- and we slightly lowered and raised it a bunch to try and find the free spot. Once we got it free I was surprised that it is fairly evenly balanced on the jack the way I did it- the front of the transmission is just barely heavier, maybe 25 lbs. I left the mount on the trans and it has a 35?mm diameter x 25 mm long plastic cylinder that sticks out the flat bottom of the mount that locates it to the crossmember (it’s also bolted to the xmbr). I drilled a 1.50 hole thru a ~4” long wooden 2x4 and sat that on the floor jack saddle to mate to the mount. It worked really well, much better than I expected; it was very stable, considering, and it locks the transmission pretty well to the floor jack. We had no issues with it trying to fall off the jack. You couldn’t let the transmission go, but as long as you held the front of the trans up, very easy, it was ok. My girlfriend worked the floor jack (thanks K!) and I manhandled the front of the transmission. Before we started, I had to lower the truck some from where I had it earlier so the floor jack would reach, and then the trans barely fit under the frame when removing it. The second hardest part was getting the wiring harness off the top of the transmission; I know I spent at least an hour struggling with that on Saturday. Of course at the factory it’s installed on the engine and trans when they drop the body so it’s no issue for them. It would’ve been great if they added a plug in the engine bay to disconnect it there and leave it attached to the transmission. Another thing that made it harder is the bellhousing has to come off with the transmission, and those upper bolts are a long way off! I used some special long extensions designed for this purpose (½ female drive X 3/8 male end), 3/8 drive swivel impact sockets, and an impact gun. I think the two extensions are 24 and 36” long and I had to use the 36” for the upper bolts. So I got some use out of some obscure tools. I worked solo and most of the day Saturday and Sunday to pull it and had help only when separating the transmission from the engine. I generally don't get in a rush and try to be thorough and not break things I'm sure a shop with a lift could do it in half the time it took me. I heated the nuts for the exhaust bolts with an oxy-acetylene torch and managed to get the front exhaust pipe off without breaking anything- that took some time.

I disassembled the transmission last nite and the problem is obvious- but baffling. There’s a spacer between 5th gear and the bearing at the end of the output shaft. But it’s obviously now too short which let 5th gear move towards the rear. How did it shrink? 5th gear gear is stuck. It’s press on, supposed to be per the manual; this surprised me since it’s splined and there’s a snap ring at the end of the shaft. So a press on 5th gear, a spacer, a press on bearing, and a snap ring. This has been happening for a while, maybe since new. The force from driving the vehicle in 5th gear pressing the spacer against the bearing has somehow shortened the spacer. Seems impossible. I can see that where the spacer is against the bearing there's something going on, there are sharp ridges on the spacer that shouldn't be there. With 5th gear moved rearwards 6mm+, the shifter fork for reverse is blocked from moving forward by the gear. To activate reverse you move the 5th gear synchro forward (now blocked by 5th gear) and this also moves a second shift rod which moves the reverse gear inside the case. Hard to explain, but with the gear moved it blocks shifting.

I haven't spent a lot of time looking at everything else, but it appears ok with a quick look. I need to clean it up and look some more. The oil didn't look that bad, it has about 50K miles on it. I did get some long sharp thin pieces of metal out of the trans case that I assume are from the spacer. I still have the oil and will put a magnet in it. I didn't seem like there was that much metal in it.


At the above link, R155F disassembly, page MT-17, you can see the output shaft spacer and the bearing and snap ring- it's next to the "MT" "tab" on the top RH side of the page. 5th gear isn't labeled but is at the end of the output shaft shown at the top of the page

I’m 90% highway driving, so I'm 90% 5th gear. Still unacceptable at 100k miles though; something had to be wrong from assembly on this but I don't know what. I'll try and post pics.

 

Ok, here's a few pics. You can see that 5th gear has moved on the mainshaft which now blocks the shift fork from moving the synchro forward - and also the reverse gear movement in the main case. But it can move rearward for 5th gear.

If you look closely, you'll see the spacer is deformed next to the bearing from the thrust load from 5th gear- due to the tooth angle forcing it rearwards. I found several sharp slivers in the main case but nowhere near enough to construct the missing ~6 mm of spacer tube.

So I guess that this particular 5th gear and mainshaft didn't have enough press fit. And also the spacer's wall thickness isn't thick enough, or the material not strong enough- although that's not the main issue because if it was this would be widespread.

 

OP, while its apart you might want to spec the side clearance of the forks in the shift collars. I ran up across this on a low mileage 6 speed and it appeared the ASIN/Toyota has possibly given up on part matching and may now building these manual transmissions on the sloppy side of the specs and that would play tough with the reverse shift. Also take a close look at all the small springs for breakage.

 

Need to share that with the Toyota engineering department.

 

It seems that either the output shaft or 5th gear, or both, don't have the correct tolerance on the press fit. And there's no way to inspect this without engineering drawings- this isn't in the FSM. So that means changing both 5th gears and the output shaft (hopefully these will be machined correctly) then bearings, seals, thrust washers, maybe a few synchro rings... At that point I'm sure I'm well over $1k in parts for a limited rebuild as the two gears and the output shaft are ~$550 at online discounted prices. The bearings are expensive, ~$300 for what shows up searching online without verifying they're all there with the FSM.

So, I'm not sure it makes sense to fix this as I'd be more than half way to a new transmission and still have mostly old synchronizers. Plus all the time to rebuild it.

I've driven a manual transmission for 30 yrs (313k miles on my last one and it was ok when I sold it) and have always said that unlike automatics, "manuals don't break on their own, you break them- from abuse". Well, Toyota has ended me from saying that again. I've never towed anything with this and it's never hauled more than me and a few hundred pounds of stuff; and I drive and shift it like an old lady as I've always had a sports/performance car to abuse if I want.

 

Kudos to you for digging into the issue and finding it

Sucks that a gear slipped but could I have been from being parked in gear and someone bumping you?

Those slivers might have been floating around and chewed up by the gears

 

Sounds like you need too call it a day and put a new transmission with a warranty in.

 

^This.