the reverse lights don't come on while the car is in neutral. only when i move the shift **** into reverse.

 

Still read the link fooger posted.

It sounds like your 5th-reverse shift rod may be dislocated. This happens sometimes with the miata transmission. On the left side of the transmission, remove the reverse light switch. Insert a stubby screwdriver, you should be able to feel the shift rod. There's a notch in the shift rod that should be centered in the switch hole when in neutral. You will probably find it isn't, it's off center.

You want to stick the screwdriver into the notch and pry the rod over so the notch is centered in the hole again. You may have to move the shifter around while doing this to relieve pressure on the linkage. Give it a try.

 

will do and i'll report back to you guys. thanks for the help

 

okay. so the aforementioned suggestions didn't work. still had the same issue. in order to remove the transmission as a possible cause, i swapped out the trans provided with the 1.8L and put in my old tranny that was functional with my 1.6L when it was removed. tried engaging first gear again and still no dice. shifter still can freely move between gears without pressing the clutch while the engine is running.

could it possibly be that the pressure plate isn't being depressed enough to disengage the clutch? looking at the movement of the clutch fork, it doesn't seem to be moving far enough for the throwout bearing to engage the pressure plate at all. but then again, i'm not 100% sure how much it's supposed to move for it to work properly.

any ideas or suggestions? thx

 

When you swapped trans' this time did you check there was a friction plate installed in the clutch on the engine? i.e. is there a spline to engage? Can you rotate the spline in the friction plate by hand? If so, it's fubar.

 

Ok, first off, you need to be clear in your answers. You'll save yourself and us a lot of time and effort. Help us help you. First you said this:

Then you said this:

We'll go with the latter.

If you already swapped transmissions. I would think we can rule that out but you should have checked for something obviously wrong with the clutch when you had them apart. It's either a clutch issue(pressure plate or friction disc), hydraulic issue(clutch master or slave cylinder) or you forgot to put the driveshaft in.

Is the driveshaft installed?
Can you get it in any gear and make the wheels spin?
Did you happen to notice anything odd about the clutch when pulled apart?
IIRC the throwout forks move about 1.5" give or take a little. Do they?

 

I've got my money on no disc in the flywheel/pressure plate, or its slipping ungodly amounts.

 

Any resolution on this?

 

sorry for not gettin back to you guys. i haven't had a chance the past couple days to work with this because of work. i'm actually about to go out there in a few to see what's the deal with it. i should have looked to see if there was something wrong with the clutch when the trans was out, but doing this late at night after working all day definitely didn't have my brain working logically. driveshaft is in btw.

 

okay, trans is off and there was no friction disc. yes, i know i'm an idiot for not checking when i had it off in the first place. no need to tell me that. thanks everyone for their input and help with diagnosing my stupidity lol

 

i do have a quick question though that maybe one of you can answer... since i'm without a proper friction disc for my 1.8L, is the friction disc from the 1.6L compatible? i looked at the one from my 1.6L and it appears to be the same size as the 1.8L would be. i don't want to try it though and have something go wrong or it not work once trans is back in.

 

1.6 and 1.8 discs are different and not interchangeable. Make sure you have a 1.8 flywheel before you buy a 1.8 disc, too. I don't know what kind of shitty fly-by-night operation you bought that drivetrain from, but if they were stupid enough to give you a PP and no disc god knows what else they've fucked up.

 

Glad to hear you finally figured it out. Bummer on the missing friction, that's messed up. I would tell whoever you got it from they owe you a friction.

 

wow this is epicly tragic I hope you get it sorted soon.