easy shifting only when cold
 

after my tranny has warmed up it's hard for me to shift, there is a noticible amount of resistance from going into any of the gears. however for probably the first 5 minutes of driving it is as smooth as butter.

My guess is my NAPA 80W-90 gear oil.

Sounds like its overheating or something due to not enoughe tranny fluid. Check your levels.

it does seem to get pretty damned hot quickly...... I'll check it tomorow. I or more so my friend changed the tranny fluid when I bought the car 4k miles ago.

I'd like to make note now that I'm missing the big cap that goes on the bottom of the tranny. I'm wondering if that is affecting nething.

You really should try synthetic gear oil.
My current best buy is Wal-Mart 75w-140 synthetc, great high temp stability, kind to syncros.

yeah, I was thinking of getting some castrol synthetic gear oil at costco. I did the oil change right when I got the car so I was just sticking with dino oils because of the engine not liking every brand.

Read the bottle...
Does it say "safe for synchromesh transmissions" or "GL-4 rated"???
Does the fluid stink of rotten eggs?
If either is true, flush that crap out and get a GL-4 rated fluid or stuff that's safe for transmissions.


-Ted

changing mine out with redline mt90 probably tomorrow. Hopefully this will help changing gears from 1st to 2nd or going into reverse. This only happens while stopped.

Okay, I did a little web searching, and I came across this...
http://home.earthlink.net/~cmcguffey...l/lubebsk7.htm

I was wrong about the formulation specs, as the GL-4 versus GL-5 is a performance spec.

But, due to the performance spec, GL-5 oils typically have sulfur in them.

I also was poking around the NapaOnline.COM website, and they do not offer an 80W90 gear oil that's made for manual transmissions.
It is most likely a GL-5 spec gear oil with sulfer in it - just smell the bottle, and it'll be obvious.


-Ted

I recently changed from Mobil sythetic to Redline 75w90NS and it made a HUGE difference in shiftability. I also had a slight grind starting to occur from 1st to 2nd which disappeared completely. If you're still using plain old off the shelf junk, get the good stuff! You will not regret spending the extra $$.

technically your not suppost to use 75w90NS for reasons ted has stated, but i think redline says somewhere on there website that there gl-5 gear oils are kinder to bronze thne everyone elses?,.. ill look for it i remember reading that once,.. could be wrong..

I did read through the entire redline site and didn't find any listed reason not to use it in the tranny. I could be wrong, but it's working great right now. Maybe email redline and check directly with them on it?

Redline tech support will tell you they recommend "MT90" for all 2nd generation RX-7's.

I remember their "75W90" smelled of sulfur, and I think the "75W90NS" should contain the same sulfer - can you smell the bottle?
The only difference between the "75W90" and "75W90NS" is a friction additive in the "75W90" for clutch-type LSD's.

You might not immediately notice any downside on using the "75W90NS" in your transmission, but I would get rid of it and put the recommended "MT90" in there just to be safe...


-Ted

What exactly am I smelling for? I'm not sure I can determine the scent of sulfur. Give me some description if you could please.

strike a match. that is the smell of burned sulfer. rotten egs smell is how it is most described.
I use Mobile1. I love it. I do suggest a synthetic. they are just better. their viscosity won't degrade with heat like natural oil, they last longer, and they don't have anything in them that dosen't lubricate.

I pulled a container of Mobil synthetic and a container of the redline 75w90, both new fluid and smelled both(kinda made me sneeze a bit a few minutes later, so probably shouldn't try this at home kids ;) ). The redline has an odor, not bad necessarily, and not really strong either. The mobil is really a pungent irritating odor. I guess it might smell like matches. It's just kind of a bad smell. I read the label on the redline which says it has improved copper corrosion protection which prolongs the life of syncronizers. The website says: 75W90 NS



This GL-5-type geal oil doesn't contain the friction modifiers for limited-slip hypoid differentials. This makes the transmission synchronizers come to equal speeds more quickly, allowing faster shifting and much easier low-temperature shifting. Can also be used in racing limited-slip differentials where weak spring design causes too much wheel spin.

In the tech specs it says in extreme pressure protection GL5 situations the MT90(GL4) or 75w90NS(GL5) will provide good shiftability and syncro compatability and extra gear protection.

I also emailed them to ask how compatable the 75w90NS is with brass or bronze syncros, as well as if there is more sulfur content than the others. I'll try to remeber to repost if/when I get a reply from them.

put in some redline MT-90 finally. so much smoother shifting at ne temp. but now that brings me to a new issue of smelling burning gear oil, I think, when I step out of the car. I didn't notice the smell till the oil change, after a couple days I'll check my level and see if it's gone down.