I ask because I think mine might be on the way out. I have a 2005 (early) GT with the manual 5sp. I have 38k kms on it so that is about 30k miles.
I seem to be grinding the gears going from 1 to 2 more often. Don't get me wrong, it is not that often, but I rarely miss a shift. I have had the gears grind and I thought it was letting the clutch out too soon when really hammering on it (hitting the rev limiter). I do a lot of autocrossing so there are a lot of hard 1-2 and 2-1 shifts. Normall driving is fine, but if you rev it way up in 1st and pull hard into 2nd it might grind.

The other day I know for a fact I had the clutch all the way in and it ground the gears something terrible.

Are yours hanging in there? I know I am under warranty and there is a TSB for noisy transmissions that says if the oil is drained and any metal is found, replace the entire transmission. I am pretty sure they will find metal in mine.

I haven't worn out a transmission in a long time, like 20 years and I can be hard on all my cars and they take it. I hope this isn't a sign from above!

 

My second gear is fine, Im pretty harsh on my cars, rolling up in 35k mile.

 

I find that it is difficult to pull the shifter out of 1st gear and it is a bit rough to get it into 2nd gear. I usually have to wait 2-3 seconds before I complete a 2000 RPM 1-2 shift to avoid damaging something. 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-4, 4-3, and 5-3 downshifts aren't a big deal. It's the 1-2 that is "difficult" to accomplish at a fast pace in normal driving RPMs. If I am doing 5k-6k RPM shifts, it's not really a problem. Weird eh?

 

First thing I'd check is to make sure all the bolts for the shifter are tight. Especially the one for the linkage arm right underneath the shifter.

 

Oh she's tight. I forgot to mention I have a Hurst shifter. The 2-3 shift is lightning quick, probably the quickest of most cars I have driven. As the other person stated, 1-2 can be a pain.

Anyone else?

 

FYI I am using the bone stock shifter (no trans mods). 2-3 is very smooth, as is every other gear except for the 1-2.

 

Second gear in these transmissions suck. Can't take shifting at high rpms and goes out easily. I'm on my second transmission and it's going out again. I haven't even beat on the car since the second one went in.

 

Change the oil in the tranny! Mine was doing the EXACT same thing and it was much worse when the car/ouside temps were cold. I did some research and then changed the tranny fluid for the Royal Purple SyncroMax fluid.

The problem TOTALLY went away! It has gone away so well and for so long that I had basically forgotten about it until your post reminded me. The tranny is also quieter than before. Not sure why, but this tranny REALLY likes the SyncroMax fluid.

Oh, and 38k km is closer to 24k miles. There are 1.6 km to the US mile.

 

Will the dealer still do warrenty service on a tranny with an aftermarket shifter?

 

They will if you put the stocker back on!!

 

That is the prequil to the visit to the dealer!

 

I am using Redline's High Temp ATF and found it works better than stock. How "cold" are you talking about in New Mexico? I may give the RP Syncromax a try but i heard that the RP Syncromax is not suited for our Tr-3650s with paperlined synchros.

 

I sometimes used to have problems with second gear , but since I installed an MGW shifter I don't anymore ...

 

You're onto something with the shifter.

I did an experiment this morning and jammed the shifter to the left (against the "stop") before trying to shift into 1st or 2nd. I found that if you did this, it would shift more easily/smoothly. I normally just move it left and shift it up into 1st or down into 2nd. My guess is that it gets misaligned and becomes difficult to shift.

A well-designed shifter might prevent this misalignment.

 

Mainly, I was talking about "cold" as in "cold in the morning". But it was worse during winter than summer. During the worse of winter, "cold" would only be around 25F or so.

And as for the paper syncros, well, the stock fill wasn't working worth a crap, and the RP Syncromax IS working, so I'm happy! If I recall, the reason that the factory says not to run syntetic fuild is because it is too slick, causing the syncros to spin too much and not sync the engagement teeth. The syncromax fuild is full syntetic, but it they added friction modifiers to give it the right friction for the paper syncros. What ever they do, it does appear to work quite nicely in our trannies.

 

How many miles have you logged with the SynchroMax?

 

Try changing the fluid. When my car starts to shift like crap, I change the tranny fluid and it all goes away. Have the dealer do it though and have them look for metal pieces like the other said, and put the stock shifter back in!

 

Dealers should not have a problem on Hurst shifter, due to the fact that it's installed on Shelby GT and warranted on those.
Don't quote me on that, but I would think that you would have valid argument.

 

yeah maybe

 

I heard that some of the 1-2 shift problems were because of the remote mounting of the shifter linkage. Some folks have installed transmission braces, saying it keeps the tranny from twisting/shifting under load in relation to the body-mounted shifter. Could this be part of it? I know I have to back off a bit from full throttle when shifting 1 to 2, otherwise it seems way too hard to get into second. What do you all think?

Sleeper2