Stiff Shifter Side to Side

[Ultramaroon]

That looks like a perfectly normal gearshift.


Here's a nice section of the manual; some cool info about the transmission. It's all good but check out the last part.

[romendiratta]

Oh really, well thanks for the info. I guess I've been wasting my time worrying about something that was never broken in the first place.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by romendiratta

Oh really, well thanks for the info. I guess I've been wasting my time worrying about something that was never broken in the first place.

I'd say that you're paying attention to your favorite machine and this was a happy learning experience. Hopefully, others stumbling onto this will also be relieved.

[churchx]

Easy to engage gears, is if there is little difference in rotational gears .. or in case if engine is not running, if gears are aligned close to engaging position. AFAIK gears in these trannies are grouped 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. To me it looked, that during first engage 5-6 gears shaft was not exactly aligned for engage with selector gears on clutch side shaft, you forced them in, which may have turned a bit clutch side shaft a bit to align, thus understandably the rest, "easier" shifts afterwards, when also non-aligned 5-6 shaft was in right position (which might be depending on luck, when gear shafts/clutch shaft stops, at which position, sometimes at one where all gears are easy to shift into, sometimes not).

What i'd check for problems, when car is actually driving (with engine obviously running), how gear engages on upshifts/downshifts, for normal shifts, with gear at a time, are easy or not, and obviously to check/compare that against other twin. That is when one needs to evaluate if it does it's job fine, if synchros do their job fine and such.

[romendiratta]

Originally Posted by churchx

Easy to engage gears, is if there is little difference in rotational gears .. or in case if engine is not running, if gears are aligned close to engaging position. AFAIK gears in these trannies are grouped 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. To me it looked, that during first engage 5-6 gears shaft was not exactly aligned for engage with selector gears on clutch side shaft, you forced them in, which may have turned a bit clutch side shaft a bit to align, thus understandably the rest, "easier" shifts afterwards, when also non-aligned 5-6 shaft was in right position (which might be depending on luck, when gear shafts/clutch shaft stops, at which position, sometimes at one where all gears are easy to shift into, sometimes not).

What i'd check for problems, when car is actually driving (with engine obviously running), how gear engages on upshifts/downshifts, for normal shifts, with gear at a time, are easy or not, and obviously to check/compare that against other twin. That is when one needs to evaluate if it does it's job fine, if synchros do their job fine and such.

Thanks for the input!

But you're response was a little bit over my head. Sorry I'm new to the car scene and I have a general understanding of what is happening, but not exactly. But the resistance does occur when the engine is running as well. So what I got from your response is that the shaft was not aligned properly, so it gives resistance when going into a set of grouped gears. Once I go into them though the shaft aligns, which makes it 'easier'. So if this were the problem, how would I resolve something like this?

[Ultramaroon]

Latvians - SMH

[LimitedSlip]

I can't speak for the earlier models (I have no reason to believe they would be any different) but the shifter in my '17 is spring loaded so that if you move the lever to the neutral position between 1st and 2nd or 5th and 6th and then let go of the lever, it will center itself automatically to the neutral position between 3rd and 4th. This can be handy if you really blow a shift badly and lose track of which position in the gate the lever is in. It gets you back to a known location without having to look at the shift lever or the gear indicator in the multi-function display. You could of course release the clutch and see if the engine over-revs, lugs, or ended up where you intended but why risk the potential embarrassment of not looking cool with a clutch. Anyway, the downside to this is that it does create a little more side to side resistance when leaving the 3rd-4th gear area of the gate. Maybe this is what you're noticing?

[Ultramaroon]

You guys, that last part of the page I linked is a force diagram to describe how hard the centering mechanism pulls the gearshift as a function of angle side to side. It starts out hard to move and then gets easier. It's a feature which is why it is detailed in the manual.

[Contender]

Your not playing with enough if it's always stiff.

[chanklins]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

You guys, that last part of the page I linked is a force diagram to describe how hard the centering mechanism pulls the gearshift as a function of angle side to side. It starts out hard to move and then gets easier. It's a feature which is why it is detailed in the manual.

I just wanted to let you know that the exact same thing happens on my 2017 BRZ

Shifting is fine, it’s moving the shifter to left or right what is considerably harder compared with other 86’s. I have a 2015 FR-S as well and I’ve never felt that it was so hard moving the shifter to the sides.

I’ve also driven about 15-20 other 86’s and never had this hardness on the shifter.

Did you ever figure it out?

[churchx]

One of common mods is replacing to stiffer mtec springs that center more lever in mid against 3-4 gates. But i i don't find moving lever side to side as hard doing/something requiring abnormal force after installing them. Have you bought your FRS used? Maybe previous owner installed some quick shifter but botched something?

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by chanklins

I just wanted to let you know that the exact same thing happens on my 2017 BRZ

Then it's real.

Does it feel wrong moving center-to-left, or center-to-right, or both.

If both, does it do it equally in both directions?

Do you feel interference every time, or does it change up?

Can you change how it interferes by wiggling it fore-aft to center it horizontally?