94 Civic M/T: Reverse occasionally problematic

I occasionally have trouble getting the tranny into reverse. The lever
gets stuck on the way, and doesn't reach the engaged position. It's
possible that I'm simply not used to the quirks of the car yet, but
since it feels fine other times I'm wondering if something might be
amiss that should be taken care of. I do have the clutch fully
depressed, and have no trouble shifting into forward gears.

I haven't exactly figured out the trick of engaging it when it gets
stuck. I'm experimenting with a little rolling in case the engagement is
being hung up by misaligned gear teeth, but I haven't really focused on
it yet.

Thoughts?

 

Thoughts?

Usually a release of the clutch and depressing it will do but a surefire
trick for me is to go into 1st gear first then reverse.

 

This is true for all manual transmissions. Reverse does not have
'synchro-mesh', designed to allow the gears to mesh smoothly.
If it hangs up, put the transmission in neutral, let the clutch out,
put the clutch back in again, and try again. Usually that works but
sometimes, you may need to do it twice (if the gears line up in the
same way again.)
Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

 

Thanks, guys, I'll try your tricks. Last time I drove a manual was back
in 1990, and I must've forgotten about this issue. Happily, the rest
mostly came back to me.