4th gear suddenly hard to shift into?

[Milo2361]

i literally just got done replacing my shift fork cover gasket(it was leaking pretty bad), replaced the fluid with swepco 201, took her for a drive and now 4th gear is hard to shift into???? was fine before, not sure why it wouldn't shift fine?
All the other gears shift smoother than before, 4th sticks quite a bit coming both from 3rd and 5th to 4th.

need a fix soon because saturday i'm going on the 430 mile trek to Lincoln, where i'll be attending college....

[MBEngineering]

HI Milo2361
is the shift better hot or cold?? and if only all you did was replace the gasket and the oil I would go for a worn sincro band, as the new oil is to new/thick to cope with it being worn, the fork on the selector plate was tight?? as a small amount of movement will cause a selection prob' some thing for you to check.

regards mike

[snbush67]

Milo,

Just a theory;

Is it possible that the old gasket was worn thin and that the guide fork was a few mm higher than it was supposed to be? This could have been putting pressure on your shift rod or guide fork, which may have worn it out of spec. When you replaced the old gasket with the new gasket it would have lowered the guide fork back to its correct placement but because it was out of place for so long you now have a sloppy "worn" condition.

Something else to check are you sure that you replaced all the fluid? You should have got about 3.2 qts in (3.0 L).

I hope it is as easy as replacing the guide fork or even just a coupler readjustment. It really doesn't sound like a show stopper just shift carefully and you could even skip fourth.

Good Luck,

Shane

[Milo2361]

fork was tight - definitely couldnt move it with my hand at all. all fluid was drained and replaced *those plugs were a pain!*(didnt have the proper tool to remove them so i got an 11/16 nut and welded it to the thickest bolt i could and it worked!)

come to think of it, it was late and i was tired of being out there so late so i didnt get it warmed up all the way... will warm up and see what happens a little later today.

also when i shifted last night, if i shifted reallly slow it went in 4th fine... i know my first gear synchro is worn - bad grinding when i tried downshifting when i first got it... 4th was just stiff last night.

[Milo2361]

wow thats a relief... warmed it up - - was still a little stiff so i just kept driving - - now its smooth as butter! lucked out eh?