so long story short lol i just bought an 05 Rx-8 from a buddy of mine who had just fixed a blown rotor after buying if from another guy in iowa. the guy he bought it from said when he was replacing the the shifter **** with his new one he said a spring flew off and he was never able to find it. well ever since we have only ever been able to get it into reverse once and we werent sure how. when we try to push the shifter down/in to reverse it wont budge at all. you cant make it move pulling up either. it goes into 1st-6ths with no problems but wont even move down at all when trying to push it down to put it in reverse. any help or ideas would be appreciated.

 

I would start by disesembaling it and locating all the springs in the diagram

 

There is a lockout tab on the shifter retaining plate and shifter ....check that the plate is straight

Thats where the restriction likely is. Is there a short shifter installed...they can make the tolerances closer and more likely to bind