The curse of the crunchy 2nd gear

dinodinojungle

Greenie N00B Member
Hey all, I've got a trans issue that I can't nail down. A few months ago, I changed trans fluid to the Ford XTM that people like for these cars, and I noticed a new hesitation to go into second gear. It's hard to explain exactly how it feels, especially since the feel changes, but it's a cruncy feeling, almost like I feel the gear force itself into place. I did some more looking and found out that the Ford fluid is the wrong weight, so I put some 75w-80 in there, messing with the shifter cable under the center console, and rerouting my clutch line in case anything was catching, but the feeling persists. I'm fairly sure I filled the trans properly both times. I've read some threads mentioning 2nd gear synchro wear and shift fork wear, and during one flush a plastic piece did come out from the trans, but as far as I know the symptoms of fork wear were not staying in gear, not my problem. A friend of mine who's more knowledgeable than me said it could be a combination of it being cold (I'm a new Speed3 owner and this is my first winter with the car) and the fresh fluid being thicker, but I wanted to get second opinions since the issue doesn't get better the more I drive the car. Thanks!
 
The ford fluid is fine the heavier weight is what is recommended for gen 1 which has the same transmission. If a plastic piece came out you lost the pad in a shift fork. This will keep that gear from fully engaging you need to take the transmission apart to fix.
 
I appreciate your feedback. I recall a mention of an aftermarket fork with brass pads, but everywhere I saw showed them as out of stock. How dangerous is it to drive the car as it is? I've been babying the trans into second given the issue (basically letting the revs drop to 1500RPM or so before shifting).
 
Just skip using second.

I think Speed Solutions probably still has some brass fork pads laying around; could ask him on Facebook.
 
Back
Top