2nd Gear Grinding

bigcat302

New Member
Apr 23, 2004
3
0
0
Missouri
I have an 89 5.0 and for some reason I grind every time I shift hard from 1st to 2nd, but not if I shift nice and politely. I just replaced the clutch with a King Cobra from Ford Motorsports. The grinding occured before and after the clutch change. I have adjusted the clutch cable so that I am happy with the clutch engagement, but I still have the grinding into second. I can power shift into any other gear and there is no grinding. I also have the Steeda tri-ax shifter for the T-5. Can anyone help me out with this problem?
 
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Just bought the car, ahem....1989 LX Sport Hatchback with 65,000 original miles. Bolt-ons: Systemax Intake (upper & lower), Underdrive pulleys, steeda tri-ax shifter, headers, GT-40 heads, alternator, h-pipe, sub-frame connectors, some other suspension stuff. Now I have put in a new clutch and resurfaced the flywheel because the car had been sitting in a college professor's garage for a little while. About 2 years to be exact. This is my daily driver, and I don't power shift very often. I just don't like that when I do I hear this grinding. I would also like to be able to take this to the track to see what kind of time I would run, but I don't want to hear that ever embarrasing scratch into second. Wouldn't poor synchros show up during regular shifting as well?
 
When it's cold, yeah. Usually once the fluid warms up, it goes away...but it's only going to get worse, not better. You can try switching to synthetic ATF, but I'd just go ahead and start saving for a synchro kit if I were you.
http://ddperformance.com/t5_parts__upgrades.htm
AK3 T5 Rebuild Kit $169 Contains bearings, races, blocker rings, springs,inserts, shims, thrust washers, snap rings. You will need this stuff when you're rebuilding a "World Class" T5 (3.35 or 2.95). Kit does not contain hard parts like gears, sliders or shafts.
 
Mine did that too, but going into third. Get the rebuld kit and a video and do it yourself. It's easy. You take out the main output shaft, clamp it in a vise, take everyting off 1 by 1, replace the bad parts, and put 'er back together. Much easier than an automatic and no real special tools required. I say go for it. I did it in my basement in a couple hours and it's great.

Good luck, B.
 
You are going to need a rebuild on that tranny. Second gear sincros are a common area to go bad on stangs. Baby it till you have the money and time to do this.
 
See http://www.ttcautomotive.com/English/onlineorder/product.asp to download a FREE service manual for T5 or Tremec 3550
You will need the Adobe Acrobat viewer which is also a free download – http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

See http://www.hanlonmotorsports.com/ or http://www.ddperformance.com/index2.htm for parts

A T5 rebuild kit with syncros, bearings and other small parts costs about $160. It does not include any gears or shafts.

Hanlon also has a video on how to rebuild your T5 or Tremec. If they are out of stock see http://cartapes.com. It costs less than $20, and is worth every penny of it.

I did a Tremec 3550 rebuild, and it wasn't that difficult. The video was an immense help, and I would recommend viewing it. At $20, it will give you an opportunity to look and decide for yourself if you think that it is something you want to try to do.
 
2nd gear synchros... I had the same issue at my last race of last season. I had it rebuilt and will know this Friday how much better it is.

Mine shifted fine the whole way down to NJ (2.5 hours) but everytime I went to hit 2nd it would go in (on the power shift). The second run it actually wouldnt go in for a few seconds (it felt like seconds). The last run I granny shifted and slid it in, but it was a pain. Might be time for an upgrade!