1988 Civic Wagon Shifting Problem

Hi all, I have an '88 Civic Wagovan (4WD), manual transmission with about 135k. It has always shifted fine except recently (last week or so) the gears would stick a bit while shifting into them. It felt like the clutch had a little trouble getting all the way to the floor, but I thought it was just getting old and was sticking because of normal wear. Today on the way to work though, I went to shift and nothing happened. I put the clutch in and it wouldn’t go into any gear. This went on for about 30 seconds and eventually I got it into 2nd and then 3rd. I was very close to work and parked the car then.



A couple hours later I went out and it shifts fine (with a little sticking going in). I drove it around the parking lot and it did fine in all the forward and backward gears. My question is - what is my best first course of action. I don’t know how to check transmission fluid. Is the car safe to drive to the shop? Any thoughts or suggestions are certainly appreciated!



Thanks,



Josh

Any thoughts guys?

i think you best “first course of action” would be to find a reputable mechanic, and ask them if they could look at it, diagnose it. then, as a second thought, find a transmission shop (again with a good reputation) and talk to them.

then after you discuss it, and decide which to go to, have the carovan (yuck yuck) towed there.

as an alternative, if you live in a rural area, you could drive it to the shop; where you dont mind being on the side of the road until it cools down (like parking it did) but that would depend on how far the repair shop is away HUH?