Miata stuck in 4th gear

My miata is stuck in 4th gear. This is rather inconvienient. Any ideas for a quick fix? I have a low mileage engine and tranmission to swap into it but would like an easy fix temporarily.

I didn't have this happen on a Miata, but it did happen to my Nissan Hardbody truck. I broke the main shaft in the transmission. Because 4th is 1:1 it would still move in 4th but none of the other gears worked. It takes a total overhaul to fix.

That being said, if your shifter is physically stuck in 4th, I would look to a bent shift fork or broken shifter bushing first. My Ford T-5's would all destroy a "tophat" bushing every now and again and get caught in a gear. Pull the shifter, if the bushings and grease look good it's a fork and needs a R&R.

FYI, swapping a trans is very easy, leave your motor and go for the bottom. It's just a clutch change with a different trans going back in.

I have a very early '90 Miata (Vin # 8869)
When it had just 50k-ish miles it stuck in reverse. It just happened one day leaving a store. I drove it home for about 3 miles that way with my girlfriend blocking traffic for me.
I was very much into autocross at the time. I got another trans from one club member and had it installled by another member in one evening. Total bill - $300 and that included a new stock clutch while there. It was a great deal for me and ready to compete the next weekend.

Moral of the story: Spare trans are plentiful and cheap.

Edit: of course, you may need to price adjust. As I think about it, this was likely in 1997. Wow, it does not seem that long ago.

You can pop the early ones out of reverse if you remove the switch for the reverse light and lever the shift fork back with a screwdriver

What year is the car originally discussed?

Profile say his Miata is a '95

Well, there's no common tendency for this sort of failure. If it's stuck in gear, I'm thinking broken shift fork or something else internal that's not going to be easily fixed.

Miata and RX7 boxes are pretty similar. A couple of times, I was playing Johnny Gearbanger in RX7's and managed to yank the lever hard enough that the nylon socket popped out of the selector. That's external and can easily be fixed by 1) whacking the shift lever forward with your hand and if that doesn't work 2) remove the shift boot and the three bolts that hold the shifter, pop it out, then use a big screwdriver to push the selector back. You might even be able to remove the side plate over the selector rod, like this:

If that ain't it, uh oh, out she comes.

Does the clutch pedal have good pressure?
My 91 had an erratic leak in the slave cylinder and appeared to be stuck in gear...it just wasn't dis-engaging when I pressed the pedal. A little fluid and a few pumps got me going again. I ran that way for about a week before replacing the slave.

Years ago, my '97 got stuck in fourth. Had to stop at three lights between where I was and home. Needless to say, I put a clutch in with the junkyard transmission. Didn't take the bad one apart, but I know that it made some horrific grinding noises.

Update: I drained the transmission, put a big screwdriver in from the bottom and after feeling around and putting light back and forth pressure where I could get a purchase, something clicked and it shifts. However it does not want to downshift into 2nd at low rpm, it makes horrible grinding and popping noises. I think I will be swapping engine and transmission this weekend. The engine is burning a quart of oil every 200 miles, I think I have gotten my moneys worth out of it. Thanks for the advice.

The old tranny may be worth rebuilding just to keep around. Bearing kits are cheap (ish), and the hard parts aren't bad...it may just be a good time for a learning experience. But then I'm a gearhead at heart, and that's what I'd do...YMMV, as the saying goes.

In reply to Mikey52_1:I am planning to rebuild the enengine and tranny. I rebuilt the transaxle in my 85 GTI twice, I discovered the hard way that red locktite is your friend. I have never reassembled a car engine but have torn many down while working a 2nd job at a machine shop.

pilotbraden wrote: In reply to Mikey52_1:I am planning to rebuild the enengine and tranny. I rebuilt the transaxle in my 85 GTI twice, I discovered the hard way that red locktite is your friend. I have never reassembled a car engine but have torn many down while working a 2nd job at a machine shop.

So it should be no problem then. Installation is the reverse of removal

This is just your Miata trying to REALLY get the point across about being a momentum car. If you can stay in 4th all the way 'round the track, she'll give you your other gears back.

In reply to thatsnowinnebago:

Yeah in theory however, the first day at the shop I tore down an old chevy 350 core engine without any problem just some tapping to get the pistons out of the bores. Next up was a 400 small block in externally similar condition. I can't get any pistons to move so the owner of the shop,busy putting together an engine that needs to race the next day, tells me to use a bigger hammer and drift on the skirt of the piston. Still I get no where. He tells me to put some muscle into it. So I did. I ruined every sleeve in the engine. That was 19 years ago and we still laugh about it.