5th gear grind bandaid
 

Hey everyone. Driving my car i only really use 1-4 because 5th grinds when going in. I would like to know if there is a method so when im on the highway i can get into 5th somehow with minimal grinding. I dont have the time or money currently to replace the syncro. My tranny fluid is old and dirty so i was thinking about changing that today as well.

My questions are

What fluid should i put in the tranny and how much?
Should i double clutch to get in fifth and what is the best way, to neutral then rev and clutch then shift to 5th?
I heard of not clutching at all and rev matching?
I also heard someone say floating it into gear, what is that?

Any help is appreciated. thanks

Float shifting= shifting with out touching the gas or clutch, when you up shift you just push the stick into neutral towards the next gear and put slight pressure against it but not all the way in gear. As the revs drop(revs match) you can feel the the resistance on the shifter lighten(when the revs match) and you push the shifter into the next gear. Done right it won't grind but there is a "learing curve". If your going to learn first double clucth, when you get the hang of that then float it. Google double clutching and float shifting. Floating it is the lazy way to double clutch, but if you know how to do it its ok. These are also good thing to know if you ever loose your hydrolic clutch and need to get home.

Changing the fluid won't help fix 5th gear.

FIX THE TRANS. No band-aids. Also replace the motor mounts and get a trans brace so you don't beat the syncros to death missing 3rd gear shifts.

Thanks for the info. I will search double clutching. Just finished the fluid change. Had a steady leak from an almost completely unscrewed secondary drain plug. Only 1 quart of dirty fluid came out. Looked around the house and found some fluid. Put in 2 qts of 75-90 mobil 1 gl5 synthetic gear lube and half qt. Of redline mt-90 to top it off. After searching ill go try to double clutch and see if the trans. Feels any better. If i can learn to get it in 5th w/o grinding that will be great. When its in 5th its fine. Doesnt pop out. And no noise or anything.

Yeah, there's no magic fix for a broken 5th gear synchro - if you saw it, you'd understand, it's probably in 2-3 pieces. No gear oil can fix that.

Good thing is used JDM transmissions are CHEAP, $350-400. Buy one and you're back in business. Or fix the broken synchro.

Careful shifting and double-clutching is the only short-term to keep that crunch at bay.

Dale

Wow yeah that is cheap for a trans. Whats the best way to get a good used trans. Would hate to buy a used trans. And it be worse than the one i had originally. Syncro breaks??? Thats crazy. Would make perfect sense for the horrible grinding. Looked up double clutching and it seems that you shift to neutral then shift to next gear instead of going straight to the other gear. Ill give it a try. And as soon as it gets a little warmer ill take the trans. Out.

I had the same worries when I purchased a JDM trans off ebay, but to my surprise this thing shifts like new.

There's a thread about someone double clutching to get by till he has the fund/time to fix it.

I've been able to stop the grinding by barely shifting into 5th, that is, shifting as close to 3rd as possible.

Though its slightly trickier if you decide to go from 5th>neutral>5th again. :p

Using a B&M short-shifter w/ aluminum bushing, so I don't think I'm miss-shifting.

Also changed to NEO synthetic and I've noticed better shifting across all gears but not a fix for the grind.

Mazda

There is a 3rd gen tranny for 245. Now alot of people have not so good things to say about tiger but I got one of their transmissions and it shifts like butter.

Man i wish i had some extra time and money. Im geussing the new fluid will make the 1-4 gears feel better but 5th will be the same. My syncro is probably busted. That really sucks.

5th syncro bandaid
 

Here is your bandaid, the thread is mine and I'm still using the technique on that car and it's still working, I almost never grind going into 5th, ignore about half the other opinions and suggestions in the thread

https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generati...lutch-1014824/

I understand perfectly how you are saying to do it. Ill get back to you all later today on how it goes. Basically you rev up a little to get the countershaft spinning faster to mesh better with the mainshaft.

ncaudio how do you like raleigh? might move the fam down there over the next few months.

Sounds like you got it, just shift out of 4 to neutral, let the clutch out, rev it up, push the clutch back in and go for 5th.

Re Raleigh, it's pretty nice here, mile climate, a bit warmer than VA, we seem to be on the borderline when I look at winter weather it's snowing in VA and raining in NC. They don't use too much salt so cars stay in good shape. I think property is a bit less expensive too and once you get out of town there are open roads. The police are active, so you have to watch your speed, but the fines aren't crazy like in VA. Overall I think VA has more natural beauty, but NC is nice.

PM me with you contact info and we can talk a bit more.

IIRC most gl5 gear oil isn't good for the syncros unless it is "safe for brass colored metals" so you're usually stuck using gl4 unless you pick up some neo or red line and fill with that...

Gonna bump this thread. Is it possible to fix the 5th gear without removing the transmission? My 5th gear is shot

Anything is possible with enough time and money, but any reasonable person would remove the transmission to fix it.

So with enough time and money can you also rebuild the engine without removing it from the car? :scratch:

Probably not if the synchro is broken. You can try a good synthetic oil which may help if it's worn

I promise you somebody could figure out a way to do it with enough time and money, but most reasonable people would just pull the engine out to rebuild.

It's been said before, but you pull the transmission if you want a good result.

Working under there and assembling horizontally will result in dirt getting in and not a good seal on the case splits.

Should take about 2 hours to remove and re-install the transmission, will probably save you more than 2 hours worth of extra fiddling around to get the job done with transmission in the car.