3rd Gear Problems Redux

[CJFusco]

Some of you might remember that awhile back i posted that my tranny was "snick"ing when I would shift into 3rd gear. Most agreed that my 3rd gear synchro was on its way out. Seeing as I will eventually be buying a 951 tranny for my project, I decided to live with the synchro going.

Well, halfway through the drive to work this morning, it wouldn't shift into 3rd. I thought "well, there goes the synchro" and started thinking about tearing apart my stock motor (in order to fund the new tranny and 951 engine build) and did my best shifting 2nd to 4th the rest of the way to work.

Well, fast forward four hours or so, and me driving home from work. On the first try, the car would shift into 3rd. How strange. I thought the 3rd gear synchro had finally gone, yet here I am shifting into 3rd. I go to shift into 4th, and now the tranny is deciding that it doesn't want to let go. It's like the transmission is trying to pull back into 3rd as I am pulling it toward 4th. I won the battle, and it shifted fine into 4th.

It did this a couple more times (fighting my attempt to shift out of 3rd), and after that the rest of the drive home was the same as it had been for the past couple weeks - a brief "snick" as I put it into 3rd, unless I shifted really slowly, in which it went in without a problem.

Now, wayyyy back, over a year ago, I had a problem in which the car didn't want to go into 1st, 2nd, or Reverse. My mechanic formulated a theory that an oil leak was blowing backward and onto the clutch, creating suction on the clutch and making the clutch not completely disengage. After a couple weeks, this problem vanished. About 9 months later, the 3rd gear snafu began.

I am no longer convinced that my 3rd gear synchro is bad; why would it get worse, and then get better? I no longer think that the clutch-disengagement theory is valid, because why would it only affect 3rd gear? On top of these problems, I have been unable to cure slop in my shifter... I think it is possible that there is something wrong in the linkage somewhere along the line, or something going on in that overly complex gearbox that is giving me all these different symptoms at different times.

Any ideas?

[fast924S]

Well, What have you done to try and get rid of the slack in the shifter??? Maybe there is too much slack and that is making it not want to shift sometimes. I would inspect the linkage and any bushings, Also I would change my tranny fluid just for the hell of it. Report back after completion

[CJFusco]

Done and done. Replaced fluid with Swepco back when the 1st/2nd/Reverse problem came up. To try to get rid of slop in the shifter, I did the "quick fix" of sleeving the shift linkage with brass tubing. That did nothing.

I have "inspected" linkage and bushings at the back of the car, but I am not sure that I have the expertise to spot a problem even if there was one.

[CJFusco]

bumparoo