Tranny guys.... help me diagnose this problem

[Chirodan]

Ok, so I wanted to ask you guys and see what you think is going on with my car. I have been having what I think are tranny issues for a little while now. Here is what is happening:

1. The car keeps popping out of reverse. I have to literally keep it pushed up in reverse to back up the car, otherwise it "pops" out by itself. EVERYTIME.


2. This one is a little strange. Under moderate to heavy acceleration, It is hard to shift into second. It sounds almost like grinding against teeth just before it goes in. Under normal driving it shifts just fine.

What do you guys think could be going on? If you need more info, just let me know what else you need to know.

Thanks guys...

[Blue Angel]

Try realigning your shifter base and see if that helps:

1. Remove boot.
2. Place transmission in Neutral.
3. See if the pin at the front of the shifter base slides down into the shifter shaft. If not:
4. Loosen torx screws that hold base to torque tube.
5. Move base back and forth until pin drops into shifter shaft.
6. Tighten torx bolts on shifter base.
7. Look at shifter. If it's not pointed straight up:
8. Loosen torx bolt on rear of shift shaft coupler, this will allow movement of shifter fore aft without moving the transmission out of neutral.
9. Position shifter straight up and tighten torx bolt on shaft coupler.

Try this out. I can't remember if you need to remove the console or not to get at the shifter base torx bolts... come to think of it I think you do. It only takes a few minutes to get the console apart anyway.

As for grinding into 2nd, dunno... maybe the synchro is worn out from abuse?

[Chirodan]

yeah that may be the deal with 2nd. It is getting worse and worse.

I will try that and see. Is there anything tricky to taking off the console?

[robls6]

Z's before middle year 03 had aluminum shift forks which were prone to bending. It is easy enough to try the shifter alignment, but after that you might check out the shift forks.

[ST1100]

Is it noisey moving off in reverse before it pops out of gear?

[Chirodan]

no, it sounds fine while in reverse. Having to actually keep it pushed up in gear while backing up is the problem...

[cnc]

I'm going to agree with robls6. I bent a shoft fork on my old fox body Mustang GT. It did alot of the same things you are talking about - popping out of gear and such.