BMW e30 318is problem shifting into 2nd or 4th

[TuckerRocco]

Hey everyone, im new to the forums here and am in a bit of a panic on what is wrong with my car. For context, i drive a 1991 BMW E30 318is, with a m50 motor swapped, and magnaflow exhaust, everything else is basically stock. Just recently my center support bearing went out while i was driving around town, so other than the massive amount of vibration while accelerating, i babied it back to my house, and as i pulled into my street the whole drive shaft dropped out of the transmission, it swung around and broke the shift linkage causing the shift nob to shoot off into my hand. After jacking it up and looking, all the bolts had fallen out causing that to happen, and it broke the shift linkage in two pieces. Other than that, damage was very minimal, and i removed the shift linkage, had it welded by a friend and i looks like new now. Bought a new center support with bearing, and a new drive shaft flex disc. Installed all the new parts, put the shift linkage back in the way i originally found it, put the boot and shift nob back on. The car runs great, but it doesn't shift into second or fourth gear, which i realize is the only gears you pull back to shift into, reverse, first and third and fith gear work fine and they are the ones you push forwards to shift into.

So my question is, has anyone ever ran into this problem? Could it just be shift bushings have gone bad, or linkage is not aligned? Or could it be deeper into the transmission, and i need to take it to a shop? Any help is greatly appreciated, and i will try to upload photos of the damage later.

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Here are some of the photos of the damage

[TuckerRocco]

bump

[Meeren]

Bringing this thread back alive... I have the same issue bro, my shifter linkage is welded to the top frame of the body which causes it to be misaligned.... and i am having issues getting in to 2 and 4 gear....

[superj]

maybe your motor and transmission mounts are wearing out and allowing the powertrain assembly to slide down or back a bit so the shifter is hitting now? did it used to shift ok?

[Meeren]

I bought the car like this... It does engage, but to get into 2nd...you have to like really slam it...and when you want to into 4th, it makes a small grinding noise before engaging...R, 1, 3, 5 are all perfect since I have changed the shifter bushings

[superj]

oh, its the synchronizers. they are going out. pretty soon that grinding will get a lot worse and you won't be able to go into gear at all.

but, check your shift console bushings first. sometimes they get loose over time and cause shifting to become horrible and make it seem like the syncros are going out

[Meeren]

Hey bro...thanks for the quick replies...I'm actually looking into changing transmission oil, but have no idea which is the best(I'm from South Africa)....also I replaced all important shifter bushings that were needed, I'm going to try and post a pic of what my shifter looks likr

[Meeren]

Screenshot_20190629-044726_Video Player.jpg

[superj]

Thats the newer style shifter. Get a replacement from ebay or something so its straight. It looks like they welded it incorrectly. Check ebay.eu or one for europe because they have way more e30 stuff than ebay usa