Spool Up

Okay....I have a 1991 TII (S5) and my second gear scratches pretty bad when trying to downshift from third into second. I bought a S4 tranny off some guy for $125 that has a bad 5th gear, but that's better than a bad 2nd, so I was going to swap it in until I can fix my tranny. But when I opened them both up, I am having second thoughts....just look at the picture and I think you'll see why.....

This first one is the series 4 I bought.......what's expected from a tranny of its age.



This is my tranny (S5) that was in my car. I bought the car w/ 5,000 miles on the motor, and it looks like the tranny was rebuild along with the motor.....



It looks like my tranny right now is brand new, so I am starting to doubt that it is my syncros. I looked in the box where the shifter bolts into, and there is an orange plastic piece that is all broken up. Is there any chance that this little piece is causing my second gear to scratch all the time??? (orange plastic ring in the picture)


Can I tell if my second gear syncro is bad or not from this view, and there's just something I'm not looking at right? I'm at home right now (Houston) and I have to leave to go back to college (Austin) in a week, so I don't have all the time in the world to mess around with this stuff either.

BlackRx7

dunne one just looks cleaner, but I'm no tranny expert, otherwise the gears look like there in the same condition.

Spool Up

yea....i know that the black will wipe right off w/ a rag on the old s4 one, but my point is that there is no oil or anything on the s5 so it's obviously fairly new. But yea, both sets of gears appear to be in the same condition.

Just for more info on my problem....
when trying to downshift into second when the rpms are a little high, it grinds. This is really the only gear it does it on. Can I tell if my syncros are bad without dissasembling the rest of the gear box?

Spool Up

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