Rebuilt R150F stuck in forward gear with shifter in neutral. Can't shift gears.

A very big problem popped up with my freshly rebuilt R150F today. I have been waiting on front suspension parts to arrive for my '97 V6 Taco 4x4 and finally got them installed. Added gear oil to the rebuilt R150F and started the Taco up this morning expecting to road test it. But the gearbox is stuck in a forward gear while the shifter appears to be in the neutral position. I can't shift to any other gear, forward or reverse. Marlin said to tear the tranny back out & return it for warranty work which I will have to do if necessary. But I am pushing 70 and have better things I should be doing like hunting, shooting, hiking, & fishing. I have read about this type of tranny getting stuck in reverse when bounced around during shipping. The quick fix is to pull the reverse light switch and use a screwdriver to pry everything back into position. But this tranny is definitely stuck in a forward gear, not reverse. Anyone run across this problem before? And was there a quick fix? Any help would be appreciated. And TIA!

EDIT: The R150F tranny has been pulled yet again.

EDIT#2: Marlin said they would turn it in a day so I returned it under warranty.

 

Was notified last Friday that my R150F tranny has been repaired under warranty. It is on the way back to me now, but I do hope it arrives in a more timely manner than the first time Marlin shipped it to me. That took approx. 14 days from notification to get from CA to me in MS. And this time around, I will be putting the shifter in the tranny & select all the gears BEFORE installing it. I am flat out of time at this point and am WAY behind on other projects that require the Taco to be at least drivable. It's not a toy; it's a tool. My outdoors/hunting lifestyle is at a standstill until the Taco is trailworthy. The rut starts in just 5 short weeks, and I need a fresh young hog for the freezer yesterday. Instead of sitting at my desk typing this post, I should be driving the Taco around in the woods with an M4 on the seat shooting hogs & scouting whitetail. This unexpected delay due to tranny problems is a HUGE disappointment!

 

Did Marlin explain what was wrong??

Good luck with the shipping every shipper is saying lack of employees.

 

Thanks! Did not even ask them about what they found yet. At this point, all I am really interested in is getting it returned to me in serviceable condition so I can install it again. This Taco is my hunting truck and the season opened last month. I am now WAY late! And I still have several adjustments that can only be made when the Taco is fully assembled & drivable: front coilover height, alignment, alternator output, etc.

 

Could this happen if the shifter linkage down below isn’t tightened in the appropriate position? Meaning, the gear indicator next to the shifter reads N but the transmission is actually in D. Maybe an indexing issue between those linkage parts?

When I changed my shifter bushings, I outlined the connection points in black sharpie so it would go back exactly where it was before I disconnected it.

But if it’s a verified issue with the transmission they found and fixed then that answers that.

*blond moment, I think OP has a 5 speed. Sorry

 

Yep! The R150F is a 5 speed manual 4WD transmission. This '97 V6 TACO has the J shift Tcase and manual hubs. I looked all over the iNET for similar problems with this tranny. Found several manuals that were stuck in reverse which were fixed externally thru the backup light switch port. But I found no other R150F manual stuck in forward with the shifter in the neutral position. And everyone, including Marlin and myself, agreed that the only way to remedy the situation was to crack the cases back open.

 

OK! This saga continues. I returned the R150F tranny to Marlin for "warranty work" even though my '97 Taco was never even capable of leaving my garage. The tranny was returned to me 11 days later. But the gear box was, once again, stuck in gear! Luckily, the gear box was stuck in reverse this time around. So I removed the backup light switch which had already been installed, pried on whatever is inside the tranny back toward the center plate, and got it sorted out. The tranny would now shift gears as it should. What a goat rope!

 

Glad it is working now.

I have to wonder if the bouncing around from shipping caused both problems.

I have seen so much damage caused in shipping the last 5 years it has become worse.

 

Same here and I agree. Many of the packages I have received in just the past few years thru UPS/FEDEX/USPS are damaged. Prior to that, I don't think I had a damaged package problem in 20 years. The shipping monkeys must be working overtime tossing our packages around. LOL

The R150F is once again installed. But this time around, it is functioning as it should. Good thing too because with me being just under 70, removing/reinstalling a transmission is not as easy as it used to be. Now it's time for some more of that high quality Hunting/Shooting/Fishing/Hiking!

EDIT: And Happy Veterans Day 2022! A big "Thank you!" to all of our veterans.

 

Yep. In addition to being a tech for 15 years, I got to the point where I knew so much about the necessary parts in my industry that I became the primary purchaser for all repair parts to stock five locations. Thousands of dollars spent on each order. Multiple times at the height of Covid we would receive a dozen pumps that looked like they had been launch onto a battlefield by a catapult. Totally destroyed, inside what was left of the boxes. Brand new garbage, essentially. Or at best, scrap.

I told the UPS guy it was beyond laughable and unacceptable. Don’t know how those guys and gals deliver such obviously mishandled merchandise with a straight face. Of course it might not even be them, and likely some goon farther up or down the line, but still. They all wear the same uniform. And it comes across extremely poorly in the give a shit category. Waiting weeks or months for something to arrive utterly destroyed.

 

I want to be like you when I grow up.

No seriously, replacing a trans at 70. Hell I'm not even close and my back gives me issues for the smallest things.

 

UPS drivers on the delivery side have very little control of how the truck is loaded . The damage is done long before it gets on the truck

They complain all the time but it does little good the loaders could care less and the loading Supervisors could care less as long as it is in the truck.

That is why proper packing is so critical.

 

After checking into it, I have been awarded the record for the oldest family member dumb enough to change their own transmission. The runner-up was only in his 40s, just a mere child, when he changed his last transmission herniating himself in the process. And this R150F had to be done twice. Ibuprofen works wonders. But for those occasions when even a couple of Ibuprofen can't kill the pain to the degree needed to function the next day, 3-5 stiff rum and cokes followed by 8 or so hours of quality sleep have always enabled me to go at it again the next day. All kidding aside, being almost 70 with an active lifestyle is all about pain management.

Something worth mentioning is the short magnetic drain plug, p/n 90341-18021, that fits in the R150F manual transmission and the Tcase. The front and rear diffs. on my '97 Taco both have magnetic drain plugs from the factory. And I originally thought that since the OEM tranny & Tcase drain plugs were not magnetic, they were perhaps not needed. But then I read that the Lexus 4WD has them and Marlin also installs them on their rebuilt transmissions. My '97 Taco now has them in both the R150F manual tranny and the Tcase. They were only about $3 each, cheap insurance in my book, and will also be installed in my buddy's '03 Taco & my 3rd Gen Taco Tcase when I/we change the gear oil. I looked for an OEM Toyota magnetic engine oil drain plug but struck out.

In 55 years of wrenching my own cars/race cars/4WDs, I have never removed a magnetic drain plug from a diff./tranny/Tcase that did not have at least a little ferrous metal gunk stuck to it. So I would think that these $3 each short magnetic drain plugs will be of value in our manual transmissions/Tcases.

 

Right? I've got a couple of decades still but damn if my knees didn't want to give up trying to stand back up after being under the rig countless times during the day. Glad that thing is installed now.