Transmission Trouble

[SeanC]

Hey guys,

I have had a problem with third gear jumping out for quite a while now on my car, but recently it has become much worse and I have had some other, more serious problems. The other day I was in fourth gear and went to put the car into neutral because I was at a stop light. When I tried, I could not even budge the shifter. I sat broken down for like 20 minutes, and finally it just released and was fine for the rest of the day. Today, I barely got the car into third gear once. It would kick it out immediately no matter what I did. On my way home, the car once again got stuck in fourth. After finally getting it out (I started driving it in fourth from a dead stop and it finally kicked it out), I drove home using only 1st, 2nd, and 5th. Sometimes when I put the car in neutral it would slightly grind fourth gear, and I have absolutely no idea why. Me and my friend are planning on dropping the transmission next weekend to bring it in for a rebuild somewhere, but I just wanted to see what you guys thought before I did anything thats going to cost a lot of money (haha).

I'm assuming my third gear (possibly fourth) gear syncro is bad, and I'm thinking the 3rd/4th shift fork is bent or damaged. What do you guys think?

Any suggestions would really be appreciated! Thank you!

[Joe 1320]

My bet is the syncros are toast.

[Jeff_in_Atl]

In my old Mustang (which was a Borg Warner T5 which is very similar to the T56 internal parts wise) I had it lock into no mans land some where between 4th and 5th gear one time going up Georgia 400. I went to downshift it to accelerate and it just froze. I was afraid to let the clutch out thinking it might explode it. I get down to about 35 mph and I grab it with both hands and managed to jerk it into neutral. It never did that again. I have no idea why it did that.

A synchro is only supposed to slow down the countershaft so it will slide in gear. I Don't see how it could hold it in gear.

The shift forks are known to be week. They will flex, bend and sometimes break. My guess is one of yours is bent. You can upgrade them with much better parts.
Here is one place that sells them http://www.ddperformance.com/

upgrade steel 3-4 shift fork