So I gots a strange problem.

Lately when I venture out in the early morning to start my truck and get her warm for the drive in to work, the shifter has been stuck in place.  Later in the day and after she gets warm, the stick will move just fine through all the gears. It doesnt matter which gear I park it in, including Nuetral, it will be stuck.

Now Ive been thinking; It might be getting Frozen in place, Mornings here have been in the low teens. But I cant figure out how that would happen. And then if some how it was actually freezing I wonder what I would do about it.

Any Ideas?

My gear stick hated the cold.. had to get the trans warmed up.
Try doing a trans flush, changing the fluids or running a different oil weight should help.

Bryce

What Bryce132 said.  There was a discussion on what weight gear lube to use in the transmission.  One of the guys from Alaska said that the Synthetic gear oils worked fine when the temperature dropped into the single degrees.

I never had that luck Drone637 - my transmission started working alot worse with synthetic for some reason, even though I'm well aware it should work better. Mind you mine was well worn thats for sure, but it does make a difference.

Bryce

I had planned on changin oil to see if that helped. Besides it needs it anyways.

But what stumped me is how it gets frozen. I mean, the stick will NOT, move when its cold.

I dint think gear oil would freeze up. Get thicker, yeah, but freeze? Maybe some how it got water in there. But even then the oil would float on top, right?

I was thinking water. Water that runs in an engine or transmission gets
homogenized with the oil, so it could be an oil slushy in there. Get it
changed right away

Wild

I never had that luck Drone637 - my transmission started working alot worse with synthetic for some reason, even though I'm well aware it should work better. Mind you mine was well worn thats for sure, but it does make a difference.

Bryce

Oh, I had the same problem.  Mine started shifting horribly.  When I drained the synthetic to put regular oil back in it was very dirty, much worse then the oil I poured out originally.  I think the synthetic picked up all the garbage in the transmission.

Our theory was that since my syncro's are going out the synthetic allowed the transmission to shift to quickly, it would probably be fine in a rebuilt transmission.   Just not one with 150,000 on it.

Check the boot on the top of the gear lever, it splits and lets water get in which then freezes.

A really great idea from the head suzuki tech guy i used to talk to at ASMC HQ back when i worked there.  He actually suggests this to ALL Suzuki/Geo 5-speed 4x4 owners.

When you park and turn off your motor put the transfer case into 4 wheel neutral.  And then put the transmission in 3rd gear and leave it in 3rd.  When you start your car the next day leave it in gear and start it.  Let the car warm up (usually as soon as the temp needle starts to move is considered warm)
Depress the clutch and take the car out of gear
then put the transfer case back into 2wd
then just drive normal.

He says even though the 4WN disengages the drive gears the motor is still turning stuff inside the transmission thus warming up the internals of the tranny for use.  He says this is a great way to keep the tranny running for years and that all owners should start the trucks this way.  And in your case it may come in handy.  Try it...4 wheel neutral won't hurt anything so why not.

I HAD THIS SAME PROBLEM AN ENTIRE WINTER..... WOULD LEAVE IN NEUTRAL AT NIGHT(SO NOT TO BE STUCK IN GEAR WHILE WARMING IT WOULD STALL NO MATTER HOW SLOW I LET THE CLUTCH OUT AFTER FORCING IT INTO NUETRAL) START IT LET IT RUN A BIT DRIVE IT A MILE DOWN THE ROAD TO THE DINER BY FORCING IT IN SECOND GEAR COME OUT 45 MINUTES LATER IT WOULD BE FINE. I HAD NEVER PUT BOOT BACK ON BECAUSE IT WOULD KICK IT OUT OF GEAR SO THE FOLLOWING SUMMER I FIXED SO I COULD KEEP BOOT ON AND NOT ANOTHER PROBLEM SINCE......

Read the reply from Jookycola about putting the transfer case in neutral and trans in 3rd gear, well in Orillia it's -17 c and the wind chill is about -30c so I figured I would try this trick on my '96 sidekick sport since I'm having the same stiff shifter problem (no pun intended) and ya it works on my truck!

I know it's been a while since I've been around, and apparently everyone with this problem 2 years ago has either left, forgotten or is just not around anymore...

This is a common problem on track/kicks that are offroaded. Changing the fluid wont solve the problem and parking it with the sticks in special places is merely a way to deal with it, but not fix the original issue. The transmissions are top loaders with the shifter coming right out of the top of the tranny. The linkages are in their own chamber, not the same chamber that the oil runs in. What happens is water gets in around the stick's base and freezes, making it hard to move the linkage. The best way to fix it is to park the truck in a heated garage overnight so that it thaws all the ice, then pull the console out, invert the in-cab shift boot(stretch it up out of the way) and do the same to the floor shift boot as well, pull it up and out of the way. Now you can reach through the hole in the floor, find the base of the shifter where it goes into the tranny, and push it down giving it a little turn counter clockwise to release it and the shifter will come out in your hand. Use a large syringe, shop vac or some other means of suction along with a piece of tubing to stick down in the hole and suck out all of the water that you can(you'll be amazed how much there can be in there). Once you have gotten out all of the water that you can, blow a hair dryer or heat gun down into the hole if you'd like to try to get it even dryer, then blast away with WD40 trying your best to cover all of the linkages inside the hole. Once it's all dryed and sprayed, put everything back together (just like you took it apart, but follow the steps in the other direction) and you should no longer have the freezing problem until after the next deep water crossing! LOL!

So after pulling boots off and pulling the shifter out, would new boots and seals make any diference, or is this going to be a regular service I should do after a wet trail run?

Floor boots wouldn't help, but filling the cap at the base of the shifter with grease would help. Wet rides don't hurt so much as deep water crossings...

Yaaa ..... that makes sense now that I think about it. There was this one day last fall when the my boss dared me to go through his " tank trap " at the back of the yard, which he made with the forklift and bucket. And yes I made it, water was over the hood and his jaw was on the ground. 






96 Sidekick Sport
83 Yamaha Midhight Maxim 750