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5th Gear Popping out Self-Repair

372K views 282 replies 98 participants last post by  jiggseob 
#1 ·
[This thread is referenced in our Mods/Maint section 8)]

I probably should wait until the job is actually completed, but I intend to replace the parts required to eliminate the 5th gear popping out problem on my '97 RAV4.

Mine started popping out a few months ago, but recently the problem has gotten worse. It now pops out almost as soon as I put it in gear.

I visited with a mechanic who replaced the parts without removing the engine and transaxle from the vehicle. He did it by going in through the left (driver's side) fender well. He loosened the left engine mount to improve access, but indicated that once the cover is removed from the end of the transmission, all of the parts needing replacement are readily accessible, and slide off the shaft following the removal of a retainer.

The parts are on order from my local Toyota dealer, who matched the available on-lilne price (with 7% sales tax -- just under $300).

If successful, I will document the replacement on this site, with photos and insights.

If you have any insights, please relate them to me.

Stay tuned, and wish me luck.
 
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#187 ·
G'day Hardrocker,
Any chance you could tell me where I could get the same 5th gear replacement kit?
In Australia the Toyota dealership ship sells it out as individual parts rather than the kit at $870 for the lot.
The deal you got a few years ago sounds a lot better, just wondering if this kit is still available.
Really appreciate any help you could give me and I think many people who home repair really appreciate your step by step fix it with quality pics.
Cheers Mate,
Glen
 
#188 ·
G'day Mike,
Mate, I'm in Australia and I've been looking for this 5th gear replacement part for sometime now.
Would you be able to help me out and put me in contact with someone over there who stocks this kit?
Did you finally sort your problem out?
I read that engine mounts could be a problem for 5th popping out or even the linkages?
Did you replace or look at these?
Anyway, any help you could give me I'd really appreciate.
Kind regards,
Glen
 
#189 ·
Hardrocker, you are a brave owner. It scares me to go that far into this kind of procedure. You have demonstrated that the repair can be made with the transaxle in the vehicle. That is awesome. I'm gonna show this to my repair guys to see if they can accomplish this as well. The 5th gear popping out must be a very common problem with older RAV4s. Mine is a 1996. Thanks very much for the great post!
 
#192 ·
Hello

I need some help not sure if anyone is still around but my 4th gear pops out my rav 4 1998 manual transmission. 5th gear works fine and do not understand why everywhere I read its always fifth gear that goes bad and not the fourth. I need some assistance on how to go about trouble shooting the issue, I had a miss shapen gear lever that I changed. the gears changed smoother but the 4th gear still pops. Is there an adjustment that I am not seeing on the gear lever in the engine compartment or do I need to purchase a next transmission. but these transmissions are already very old how will guarantee it wont happen to the one I buy. oh by the way my rav is right hand drive and live in the lovely island of Saint Lucia. This rav is not from US although all parts are basically the same rarely get a difference in parts.
 
#193 ·
Hello Kobby28,

I think you will have to remove the transmission to repair your 4th gear problem. So a used, rebuilt or locally rebuilt become options for you. All this make the 4th gear problem different enough that you might get better replies starting your own thread.

I've had good luck with used parts, but if I needed to this far into the transmission, I would want to get it rebuilt while I was there.
 
#194 ·
I have a 97 2-door 4WD - 240k miles. It also won't stay in 5th gear. I decided to replace some parts per this thread. Following the instructions outlined the disassembly was easy. Thanks to all!! I used a harmonic balancer puller that I had. Worked great. Cost $20 years ago. Unfortunately, I was sent the wrong bearing so my new 5th gear was sloppy on the shaft. I ended up putting the thing back together with the old parts while I wait for the correct parts as the car is needed elsewhere. One thing I did note, however, was the teeth of the 5th gear that mate with the sleeve and the corresponding teeth on the sleeve were not appreciably worn. They looked pretty much like the ones on my new parts.




I've had the car for 150k of its 240k miles and the tranny has not been touched in that time. The sealant on the cover was red and not the normal Toyota black so it appears someone may have had it open before I owned the car. But anyway, back to the issue. I am concerned, after getting the correct bearing and installing the new parts (including the syncro hub), the tranny will still pop out of gear. Since the teeth on the gears were not really all that bad I'm not sure this is my issue. The TSB calls for the bearing retainer to be replaced yet most in this string have ignored the call for this part and have had success anyway. It seems if the bearing retainer is worn the shaft may be allowed to move in and out and this may lead to gear disengagement. I also read in several places where some people noted their shift lever moved back and forth during acceleration and deceleration. Perhaps this shift lever movement is related to the shaft movement? I see replacing this retainer is a bit more involved but I don't want to put new parts in and find I haven't solve my problem. I'm not sure what bearing this retainer is retaining. It seems if it is in a TSB that is addressing the 5th gear engagement issue, the part is relevant. Comments from anyone?
 
#195 ·
Ok. Got this done finally!! I replaced the four pieces that have been discussed plus the bearing retainer. The retainer removal became a challenge. The fifth drive gear had no interest in coming off. Removing the stake on the nut and the nut itself was straight forward. But I broke a puller trying to pull the gear off (HF puller). I next tried a SnapOn two jaw and heat. I eventually won the battle but not so sure about the war. Also two of the 7 retain screws holding the retainer on had to be drilled out. Such fun!! But eventually everything went back together. Fifth gear seems much tighter than before and doesn't pop out albeit I've had only limited miles of testing. My issue is now 2nd gear won't stay in. I'll start a post on this new issue but I'm not hopeful that anything other than a rebuilt/new/reman tranny is going to fix this problem.
 
#197 ·
I suggest just pulling it apart and counting the teeth. It just takes a few minutes. I ordered the part from an online Toyota dealer, even giving the VIN "to ensure the right part..." and the wrong part showed up. They took it back and gave me the right one.
 
#200 ·
k.... got the cover off... pulled everything apart... has 40 teeth.. now i am noticing that the opposite gear from the larger has a nut that hold it on... the nut isnt tight to the gear, the nut moves a little (has a side knocked into a groove on shaft to keep it from spinning off). and the gear spins @1/4" in either direction.... is that nut supose to be tight so the gear doesnt move?
 
#201 ·
That don't sound right to me. I'm going with "you got problems there." Note that I am not a transmission expert. But if I recall, that gear is pressed on and should not have any play in it, relative to the shaft. No transmission gear should have play relative to the shaft it is stuck on.
 
#204 ·
need the part #s for european toyota RAV4 from 1995 jt171sc

Can someone please help me out i just bought this great car only to find out it has the fifth gear popping out, changed and checked what can be checked, i made youtube clips from these checks and changes.
But the problem fifth gear poke movement and popping out eventually is still is on my rav4 so i want to go at it and perform the repairs to 5th gear wioth the right 5th gear kit.
Please can someone help me with the parts.
I need the part numbers for european toyota RAV4 from 1995 jt171sc.
Where and how can i find out which ones i need. I tried to find them in this thread but it only got me confused.
Any link or advice to point me in the right direction is highly appreciated!!!!
 
#205 ·
And as far as I know, the European version should be the same as all the other markets transmission wise.

You can go to one of the online parts suppliers, like Toyota Online Parts | toyotaonlineparts.com | Toyota Parts Online and go through their system. However, I suggest you also pull the cover off and look at the gear and count the teeth. Then go to your local dealer and give them your VIN and have them pull up the parts. They will have the latest version of the part in their system. Make sure they know how many teeth are on your gear. Note that even with the VIN, the dealer first sent me the wrong 5th gear.
 
#206 ·
Just wanted to say THANK YOU to all who contributed to this thread on how to do this repair. I am the original owner of a 2003 RAV4 that started to pop out of 5th gear and have completed the repair with the help of this forum. I did have 203K miles before the repair was needed, so no complaints here on Toyota durability; I'm also still on the original clutch :)

Parts I used for this repair, current numbers as of March 2017 here in the USA:
90364-28023 - 2 piece needle bearing
33336-42030 - 5th gear with 39 teeth
33395-42012 - sleeve
33397-28010 - synchronizer

Both the gear and the sleeve showed definite signs of wear at the engagement surfaces. The synchronizer looked like new but I replaced it anyway. There is a 2nd synchronizer in the hub assembly but I did not order or replace it, as it also looked excellent.

Again, thanks for sharing excellent info for this procedure.
 
#207 ·
3rd gear popping out?

Hi- I have a 2000 5 speed with about 120K on the transmission (whole box was replaced at about 95K by dealer). More or less all of a sudden one gear started popping out and I thought it was 5th- so was happy to find this very do-able fix at a fairly modest cost (I do all my own repairs). But then, on checking it on a second drive, it is (now) THIRD gear popping out (could have sworn it was 5th first time it happened). It is definitely third now and all the other gears- including 5th- seem fine. Anyone else have this 3rd gear popping out problem? Never thought I would miss 3rd gear so much, but it is a real hassle in city driving. I assume the "quick" 5th gear fix which only requires removing one wheel, not dropping the entire transmission, won't help with this 3rd gear popping out problem? (I wish). Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
#208 ·
also, to clarify (can't seem to edit my signature, even though I am kind of a geek)- my Rav now has about 215K miles on the odometer- a new transmission was installed under the "golden" warranty right before it expired (100K warranty) as the tech couldn't find what was making noise in the original trans. so he just put in a whole new one. Again, all gears work fine except third pops out almost immediately after putting it in, no matter the speed. I would love to be able to fix it by just pulling the wheel and trans. cover as in this excellent 5th gear popping out thread if anyone knows if that's possible. I do have a manual I bought online from Toyota ($15), perhaps I can tell by staring at that...
 
#209 ·
Popping out of 3rd gear means it's going to have to come out and come apart. 5th gear on these transmission is special in that it is external to the case. The rest are all inside. You would probably be best off finding a used one at a junk yard.
 
#210 ·
Hello from Ireland! Hopefully this post isn't inactive long enough for someone not to respond! I have a 2005 2.0 D4D AWD. I was going to tackle this issue by myself but I have a few questions before. Is it the same fix for the 2005? I noticed most posters have older rav4s so I was wondering? Also does anyone know for sure how many teeth are on the gear? I have come across a few different numbers in the post and on online retailers? Or is it best to strip it down first and confirm the number of teeth?

Thanks in advance!
 
#211 ·
Got my first speeding ticket since July 3, 2006 tonight in my wife's 2002 Rav4. While driving to the coast it all of sudden jumped out of fifth gear, I had a mild heart attack, and chose to limp along in fourth. Cresting a big hill I tried fifth again on the downhill hoping the load would change the symptoms. It did, but the Oregon State Patrol was there to tell me I was doing 72 in a 55.

4 years ago when I first met this car I noticed on the freeway the shifter vibrated. All other gears seem normal. There has been a really annoying growl when you push the clutch for the last 15k miles or so (identical sound to low power steering fluid in a 70s American v8 car). Doubtful there two problems are directly related, but it looks like at 230k miles this fun little car is going to teach me a few things about it's gearbox.

Headlights were fun, and I look forward to the OME lift I ordered last week.

Will check on parts Monday when we get back from the coast.

Erik
Portland, OR
 
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