can't shift to 5th and reverse

[cheeesboiger]

i have a bone stock 1991 honda civic si with over 230k on it and about two weeks ago it was brought to my attention that my tie rod ends needed to be replaced, at the time i didn't have the money so i drove it around as it was. the car was clunking when i would take a sharp turn and at times i had to fight it just to go in the direction i was steering. as i continued to operate the vehicle in its condition, i started to hear another clunk while just driving straight to going around a slight curve. after this clunk i noticed that i couldn't shift into 5th or it was really difficult to do so. i wasn't even able to place the shifter into position to go into 5th. it would sometimes allow me to shift into 5th after turning the wheel hard right or hard left. this lead me to believe that it somehow was related to the rack and pinion and the damaged tie rods. so earlier this week (tues) i replaced both outer tie rods (driver side/pass side) and i still have trouble shifting into 5th or reverse. i can get it to go into reverse if i let the car roll back a little but it grinds as it engages. can anyone shed light and help me with this problem? i don't know where to start. this weekend i'll be putting the car on a lift and have my wife shift while i inspect it. what should i be looking for exactly?

 

[charlie brown]

you should be able to se the linkage from the shifter to the transmission. there will be coupler at the end of the linkage going into the transmission. this is your gear selector input. it should be covered by a rubber grommet to keep out debris. ensure that there is no obvious damage to the shifter linkage or the gear selector input. if everything is good externally with the trans and linkage then something else is wrong internally. gl

 

[cheeesboiger]

thanks a lot. i'll be looking for that. someone mentioned it might be my shift fork or my clutch...

 

[cheeesboiger]

so here's an update. i never got the car on a lift so i didn't do any kind of inspection. anyway i'm now able to shift into 5th and/or reverse with relative ease but now there's another problem. when driving in any gear, i hear this high pitched sound as if i'm driving a transmission with dog teeth gears. oh and when i mean relative ease, i mean that i need to apply a little bit more force when shifting into gear now.