2nd gear grinding bad

[KOOL-AID MAN]

well my second gear is pretty much toast, today it got really bad all of a sudden, grinds putting it in even when i double clutch and downshifting from 3rd to 2nd just isn't gonna happen. i guess my synchro is proabably gone? am I best off to just replace the tranny? man I am not looking forward to this..... haha

[Chris]

did you check your shifter coupler?

[KOOL-AID MAN]

ya i looked at it, it seems ok, there is a little play though. What do I look for in particular?

[Chris]

is it rubber or urethane? a small amount of give can translate into a lot of problems, i would try swapping it before pulling the motor and tranny, also check and see if your shifter has moved

[Bruce]

It could be you are tagging reverse when going for 2nd.  This is likely since a bad synchro happens very slowly, not suddenly like you reported.

A sloppy coupler can do it.  Look at the construction of the cage for the coupler.  There's a machined bushing pressed into the cage with a bore in it for the hockey stick.  This pressed in bushing can come loose.  check it to see if it can rotate.

Next remove the shifter.  Reach down and grab onto the shift rod.  lift it up and down.  Then side to side.  If there's play, you need a new shift rod bushing.

[KOOL-AID MAN]

ok, ill try those things, ever since i had the car (just over 3 years) second gear was always finicky, popped out of gear, would grind unless you put it in gear a certain way, so it isn't really all of a sudden, it went from being quite managable to not managable at all. and the tranny is quite noisy. But i will check those things out tommorrow, thanks guys!

[Bruce]

Is there oil in it?
Have you ever changed it?

[KOOL-AID MAN]

sorry I've been gone for a while, kinda put this on the back burner cause i bought another vehicle.... but no i never have changed the tranny fluid...

[Bruce]

I met a local guy with an original Speedster.  He had bad shifting trouble, so I asked him when he last changed the oil.  His answer started with, "Well, I got the car in the mid 80s........"

[owdlvr]

It sounds like your trans is beyond a simple oil flush, but you might be surprised. Drain the trans and replace with Motul Gear300.

I've had multiple bad VAG transmissions in the rally car, and gear300 was the best.

-Dave

[85fastlane]

Hmmm, I might try this as well. I've been fighting with a grinding 2nd gear for the last 2 years. Works fine, never pops out, just grinds when I downshift. The car DID sit for at least 5 years before I got it. Might need some oily stuff, hehe 

[buddy boy]

i just put redline mt-90 75w-90 , and it did make it shift better.

[Bruce]

.... The car DID sit for at least 5 years before I got it.

So in other words, it's got skanky old oil in it from the last century.  And it's only half full....