I know this is the 3rd gen section, but since all out trannies are almost virtually the same, maybe somebody in here can help me out.....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.

 

well if it just that little bushing that sits on the end of the shifter then you'ld think that you would see sloppy shifts consistantly. I really don't know a thing about trannys, just taking a stab at it. hope my nonsense helped a little.

matt