Downshifting in higher gears has become almost impossible.

[Rick Lee]

Yesterday, I was driving over 100 mph for much of the way to Vegas in 6th gear, way out in the desert. When it came time to downshift, I couldn't find 5th at all. I had to coast in neutral, blip the throttle and got it into 4th, which felt rough. Shifting back up into 5th and 6th was like butter. I drove around in Vegas traffic for a while and all was fine at slower speeds and I never got up to 5th gear. Driving home today, same thing happened. I discovered that very quick double clutching would get into the next lower gear, but it never felt quite right and once or twice I heard that terrible grinding noise, while trying to push it into gear. WTF is this? How is it so sudden?

I last changed my tranny fluid a year and 6k miles ago, Mobil 1 75/90. I have the factory short shift kit. How can it be bad synchros if upshifting is always fine, but downshifting is always bad? I removed the rubber shift coupler plate about two years ago and replaced it with a chunk of poly from a cutting board. Seems to me, if that had gone bad or melted, I'd have had bigger, more consistent problems. Anyone ever have this happen?

[Bill Verburg]

Could be lots of things

check the linkage
check the clutch & fly wheel
check the clutch hydraulics

[Rick Lee]

I put in an RS clutch and flywheel and new slave cylinder about 25k miles and four years ago. I flush the slave once a year. Pretty sure that's not it. I'm starting to think it might be motor mounts, as the car is handling kind of weird at high speeds too, sort of like it always feels like I'm driving in high winds. I have solid mounts in. I'll take a closer look today with a jack and ramps.

[Rick Lee]

Just jacked her up, put her on ramps and watched the motor mounts while I continued t jack from the case seam. I didn't see any flexing or movement around the motor mounts. How do solid mounts fail? Do they crack around the bolt heads? I really think this should be my issue, given the handling and shifting problems. I'll do some more looking a little later.

[Rick Lee]

Got the driver's side motor mount out and it looks new. Hardware could use replacing, but the mount is in fine shape. I can't see any damage to the carrier either. I poked around the shift linkage underneath the car and it's a tad loose, but I can't imagine it causing all these problems.