So, I missed 3rd the other day and now every time I try to shift to 5th it grinds. This is the 5th gear synchro correct? They need to drop the tranny to fix this right? Is there any special way of shifting to avoid this? I tried double clutching and shifting at different rpm's and it does not seem to work.

I really dont want to pay for the labor to drop a tranny, how much does the synchro cost and how much labor would it run?

 

yup sounds like 5th syncho
yes you have to drop the tranny..the part is cheap..labor never is...

short shifter kit ought to help you...not do it again

 

If you can match revs properly you won't get the grind. If not, to hell with it. Live with the grinding, it won't kill you.

 

synchros are about $25/$30 i think call masda to see garfinkle in murfreesboro can replace it but I do not know how much it cost the trans will need to come out .

 

yeah until it starts blocking reverse..

 

Most of the time you can drive without 5th, true you use it on the highway but I drove for 3 months with no reverse or fifth about 75+miles each day and alot of it highway. I used to just cruise in 4th at about 60..

 

bad 5th gear synchro driving technique:

From 4th go to nuetral
from nuetral center, slap to neutral left
from nuetral center, go to nuetral right
then you can shift in to 5th easily.

 

I have the 5th gear synchro blown too.

Basically all I do is depress the clutch, pop the shifter out of 4th and up against fifth while my revs drop down to around 2100, while applying slight pressure against the shifter until it nudges into place.

 

My 5th is gone to but I can still put it in gear but not fast and it wont grind sometimes. I use both masta cows and go racers techq. They both work fine. I dont know how you guys miss shifts. Ive never missed a shift in any manuel car. I did the 3rd to 5th 1 time, it was my first time in a RX7......can you blame me? Also why does it hurt the syncros if you go from 3rd to 5th?

 

best way to get rid of 3rd gear mis-shifts is a torque brace. It will eliminate the engine movement and give more RWHP.

 

Same deal here, I just push lightly against 5th until the revs are down to about 2 grand and it slips in nicely.. Have you ever heard of anyone with less than 700 hp who had to power shift to 5th?

 

No kidding! I missed out on that GB last month, any chance you have any more left for sale?

Matt
93 SSM

 

How exactly does a torque brace help with shifting into third? Is the problem that engine movement causes a misalignment on the gears?

Knock on wood - my 5th gear slips in fine (although I hardly ever use it - even when going 80/90), but I did get a nasty grind yesterday.

 

I've only missed 3rd once since I installed my B&M short shifter and that was the first day when I wasn't used to it yet. Now, it would be HARD to miss 3rd, even coming down from 5th. Pop it out of gear, let it center, jam it straight up!

Although I have delicate hands (computer keyboard guy) and I think I bruised my hand just below my thumb because the SS definately requires more force to put it in gear...

k

 

yes, from my understanding when you are on throttle say in 2nd gear the engine is torqued , when you slip in clutch pedal the engine goes back to its resting location, and with it the alignment of where 3rd is. The problem people make is that when you are in 2nd at WOT, before you shift you know where 3rd should be in realtion to where the shifter is now in 2nd. But that location changes when you take your foot off the gas. Torque brace holds engine from torqing, so the location of gears with shifter, realtively speaking, does not change.

Yes, I am planning on another GB if I enough people are interested. keep an eye out in next few days.

 

IF you were you stop scratching 3rd can you 5th get any worse?

 

huh? English and complete sentences please...

Was that supposed to be:

If one were to stop missing 3rd would the 5th gear grinding continue to get worse, or stay the same?

k

 

Thanks for the replies guys.....
How the hell could 5th get any worse?

 

I'm convinced that my missing 3rd problem is engine-torque related. I've taken it to about 7000 rpm in 2nd before and literally had the shifter come out of my hand when I stepped on the clutch. Scared the crap outta me.

Either get the brace KZ1 offers or some new motor mounts might fix it.

-Scott

 

I'll say one thing about the torque braces. If you've ever ridden or driven something with a sequential gear box, you'll love the way it shifts with the brace. zzzzzzZZZZZZZZ POP zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ POP Very Nice.

 

driveline flex causes the shifter forks to misalign. this was a huge problem with the 3-liter E36 BMW M3s. BMW used a rather soft tranny bushing, and the driveline flexed enough that you could correctly place the shifter lever in the slot for 4th, but because of the flew the shifter fork would nab 2nd. this happened to a bunch of people. some guy let his friend, a regional SCCA champ, drive his M3, and on a full-out 3rd-4th shift about 5mins into the drive, it went into 2nd. imagine going from redline in 3rd, hard shift into 2nd and WOT when the clutch is dropped... similar thing sometimes happened under braking, the 4-3 turned into 4-1 BMW was replacing gearboxes and engines under warrenty quite a bit until they dit a TSB for better tranny mounts. the FD "problem" isn't nearly as bad at the problem the old M3s had, but it does still happen a little bit on a smaller scale...

 

Would you like to explain the "more RWHP" statement?

 

I'd like to hear more about the more RWHP myself.

 

Let it go and if you are hard on it and miss 3rd again, you might lose 5th and reverse totally.. Like I said I took my car into a repair shop to get boost problems fixed while I had a "slightly" bad 5th gear synchro. I got back and I had no 5th gear or reverse. I know they beat on my car when I took it in there, there's no other way it could have gotten broke. Probably because like people have said they redlined it, missed 3rd and jammed it into 5th by mistake "grinding" it and peices off to block both gears..

BTW, they did fix my boost problem, but they tried to tell me that the tranmission problems were a result of the now properly working turbos..

 

You meant to say better throttle response, right KZ1? Just trying to help dig you out.