Trouble Engaging First Gear - Solved!

I have a new-to-me 1995 4 wheel drive with a manual transmission on which I have put about 5,000 miles. Increasingly, the car does not want to shift into or hold first gear. When this happens with the car running, I can hear a clicking sound that I would attribute to gears "kissing" each other - or maybe an idler gear not engaging. Not a grinding of gears, but a clicking. If I pull up and shut off the car and throw it into first gear, it will not engage or pop out, so that I must use the hand brake. Also noticed that it is somewhat difficult to downshift into second unless I am going really slowly. Yesterday, I couldn't engage first gear at all until I put the car in reverse.

Any reasonable advice appreciated.

 

There are a pair of spring loaded plungers that center the gear lever when it is in neutral and give you some tactile feel as you move the gear lever over to find the first gear position. With age the ability for the gear lever to pivot and swing the lower part of the lever into the right position can get difficult as the shifter housing wears and the pins loosen in the aluminum housing which the lever pivots in. My sons R150F would not allow him to get it into reverse even after we replaced the shifter with a Marlin Crawler short throw shifter kit. So I removed the plunger from the left side of the gear box and placed a washer under the hex head and bingo the gear box goes into reverse without issue. By spacing the plunger/s out ward it allows the gear lever to swing a bit farther to the left or right depending on if you do this to both plungers which in turn allows the gear lever to move the lower part of the selector end to get into and move the correct selector shaft with the accompanying shift fork thus being able to move the intended synchromesh collar to engage the desired ratio you want. First and second as well as reverse and fifth demand the gear lever smack up against these plungers to compress the spring inside them before you can push or pull the lever so this might be the solution to your not being able to get the transmission into first gear.

 

Thank you for the reply. I took a look at a parts diagram and couldn't figure out where the spring loaded plungers are located. I found three spring and detent balls, but couldn't figure out from the diagram where they were located. They looked to be internal.

I found a few videos where my symptoms seemed to exist and with a fairly simple solution. What with the holidays approaching and not a lot of time, I'm going to figure out what transmission I have, take the gamble and perhaps order the parts.

https://youtu.be/6qKrcbAcN7Q

 

If you have an FSM you should be able to figure this out. They are under the housing that positions the gear lever. They thread from the outside of the transmission and are large hex headed threaded parts with the same part on each side of the transmission and are threaded into the housing. If you reach up from under the 4Runer you can feel them. They are in the general proximity of the gear lever and housing that is on the top of the gear box.

 

If my other fix doesn't work, I'll crawl under the car and try to figure out. I will report back.

In the meanwhile, it seems like every car we have in the family is on the fritz one way or the other.

 

It's only been 4 months!

Today, I pulled the truck out of the garage and replaced the parts as shown in the video. The seat for the shift lever, part 33505-35020, was completely disintegrated. Photo of the replacement part in situ.



The plastic bushing on the end of the shift lever, part 33548-31010, was completely missing, hopefully sitting peacefully at the bottom of the transmission.



Problem seems to be solved.

 

Congratulations, good detective work!