Okay, so here's the story. I replaced the CV join on the passenger drive shaft about a month ago and skimmed over the recommendation to replace both drive shafts.

Anyway, fast forward a month and I'm pulling out of a parking lot in 1st gear, engage the clutch and hear the ominous sound of breaking parts. Y'know the sound where you swear you left your transmission on the road behind you.

Anyway, turns out the driver side drive shaft has come of the transmission, 1 bolt is sheared in half, the others are loosely handing on. I'm missing one pin and find the other pin and gasket on the road (I could only manage to go about 10 feet).

So now I'm getting a new driveshaft, CV joints and bolts.

But...after this happened, I noticed that my shift tree seemed very loose. Also I noticed that first and reverse seemed to be angled. Where a normal shift tree looks like this:


R 2 4
| | |
+-+-+
| | |
1 3 5


Mine now worked more like this:


  R2 4
  /| |
 +-+-+
/  | |
1  3 5


Notice how reverse is diagonally up and to the right. First is diagonally down and to the left.

I check the shift linkage (thinking that the drive shaft had locked up and the torque on it and made it come loose, hit the linkage, and bent it). But exhaust manifold would have kept them from touching. The car still shifts and engages gears (although, I need to put the new driveshaft on see if it stays in gear).

My next things to check is the shift forks (is that what it's called, where the shift linkage goes into the transmission).

Btw, this is for a '74 914/4 with a new 2.2 engine from AA in it. Original everything else.

Any advice before I drop the engine and open the tranny?

I'd expect the cv hit the shift arm or the trans sideshift console and bent / broke something in the linkage, hopefully on the outside of the trans. . . . . Inspect those parts for marks before you actually drop the trans. .and hope you can visually see what happened

1 - Your shift pattern never looked like this:


R 2 4
| | |
+-+-+
| | |
1 3 5

It was more like this:

(Thanks to JWest eng. )

And
2-

You can drop the tranny and leave the engine in the car.
For FI cars, this can save some time and frustration of disturbing the wireharnesses.
For Carbs it doesnt save that much time

I doubt it is in the transmission. The shift rod for 1/R is the same so cant have a problem like that. External is the issue. Check engine mounts, too. Bushings? Couplers? Cone screws?

Just an update in case this happens to anyone else. I purchased a new rear axle from AutoAtlanta with new CV joints (since I figured mine were shot). Got new CV bolts, gaskets, and pins. When I got the axle installed, the shift tree was still messed up.

I bought a new shift bar on craigslist for $50 (much cheaper than buying from AA or Pelican). When I got the old shift bar out, I compared the two. Sure enough, when the CV joint went out, the rear axle had hit the shift bar and had bent it pretty bad. It's hard to tell if it's bent without comparing it to another one because it naturally has bends in it.

After spending a few hours trying to take out the old shift bar, removing the knuckle connecting the front and rear shift rods, and putting in the new shift rod, everything is working smoothly again.

I now have all 6 gears and they shift as smooth as butter!!

Thanks for everyone's help.

Did you replace the Schnoor washers on the cv bolts to prevent the bolts coming out again? They are a one time use washer.

you might also have a look at the shift linkage bushings - when mine were on the way out - my shift pattern was pretty random. Easy fix - takes under 2 hours. Pelican sells a kit with all the bushings you need - good luck! td