Shifter throw after TRE tranny install?

[kronus]

Alright, so my TRE stage 1 tranny came in yesterday. Spent all night putting it in and hooking everything back together. Now previous to the install of this transmission, my shifter had even movement from left to right. Now there's less than desired movement to the left, and more than desired movement to the right. It also feels as if my 'neutral' is not centered anymore (more off to the right).

So my question is, could driving the car like this possibly break a shift fork or anything like that? I'm gonna try and find that vfaq on centering a shifter to see if that helps.

FYI: The only mods to the drivetrain as a 'whole' were the new tre tranny and underhood shifter bearings/bushings (skateboard bearings )

 

[TSIfreek]

Yea I noticed this samething with my shep trany. I have no problem with it but its nice to have 3rd a little closer. Just check to make sure the shifter cables are adjusted correctly (inside the car).
I put a stop washer on the shifter base also to prevent over shifting 3rd didnt need this for 2nd.

 

[kronus]

Adjusted the linkages, well, the side to side linkage. I didn't see anyway to adjust the front to back movement, but luckily I didn't need to. Anyway, shifter movement is great now, but has anyone else noticed that their new transmissions seem rough to get into gear? My clutch engagement is close to perfect, right about in the middle of the throw, and it seems easier to shift in higher rpms rather than in lower rpms. I'm assuming that these symptoms will go away after I break in the transmission?

 

[TSIfreek]

Yea the trany will be stiff when new and needs a couple thousand miles before it will start to loosen up.
What trany fluid are you running. With it winter now your better off going with straight syncro mesh.
Your clutch sounds like its adusted correctly just make sure it starts to engauge about 4 inches off the floor from a dead stop with out hitting the gas. I had this problem with mine and it turned out the petal just needed to be adjusted to disengage the clutch more.
Try and loosen the rod a 1/2 turn longer and see it that helps.

 

[kronus]

Alright, thanks. Just an fyi, I noticed that it's fairly smooth going into 3,4,5,R, but I have to work to get it into 1 and 2. Probably need to loosen that rod a couple of turns then. Any ideas?

 

[TSIfreek]

Going from 1st to second should be no problem with a double syncro second. I had a problem with a notchy 3rd but was cured with addujusting the petal rod out.
What fluid are you using? May want to call jon at TRE and let him know.

 

[kronus]

Well I'm using a quart of Redline MT-90 and then the rest is all Penzoil Synchromesh. Stupid me, I'm gonna need to order another quart of Redline for when I change the fulid. And it's not really a problem getting into 2nd from 1st, it's more of a challenge to get it into 1st on its own, say from neutral. I'm even going from N to 2nd, and then 1st. Got into that habit with my crappy old tranny. And I can put it into 1st very slowly but firmly, and I don't feel the synchros, um, grabbing? So I'm thinking that it just needs a couple hundred miles for the break in.

A couple more things. It seems as if it's easier to slide it into 1st just before I come to a stop, rather than after I'm stopped. That right there just baffles me. And I used to be able to slide it into any gear relatively easily when the engine was not running. But now, even with the engine off, it seems difficult to slide into gears.

 

[TSIfreek]

Thats what Im using for fluid as well and you should be fine but change it after 500 miles to get the break in particals out. Yea sounds like the trany just needs some time on it. Take it easy untill you have 2k on it then you can start beating on it. When new they are real tight to shift and loosen up when you get some miles on them. I wouldnt worry about the first gear issue just put some more time on it and will get better.

 

[T9S1i]

Im having the same problems wit my tre stage 1 trans. I just turned 2k miles on it last night, did the fluid change at the right time and babied it for at least 1500 miles since i was breaking in a new motor and clutch at the same time.
Its wierd its like when i shift at high rpms its fine (ive only taken it to about 5500-6000) but when im daily driving around the city i have to force it to get into 1st gear. sometimes it will go in like butter but other times i feel like im going to hurt my damn hand trying to push it into gear. My friend seems to think that its a synchro lining up problem. He said that if the synchros line up good from my last shift then it'll be easy to put in when i go back to first... but im not so sure about his theory. The only thing that makes me think that it stands up is the fact that the problem of going into 1st is completely random. Say im driving 10 blocks in the city and they all have stop signs. I could have the problem going into fist for the first 6 stopsigns and be cursing my car then the next 2 stops it goes in like butter, a real heavenly shift, then the last two it feels f'd up again.

Ive also noticed that when im driving around town shifting slow that it feels almost like when pulling the shifter out of fist gear it catches slightly somewhere between fist and neutral. Im going to try to adjust the shifter linkage because its the only thing i havent tried yet. In the last 6k miles (trans was installed 2k ago) ive installed a new slave, master, ss clutch line, pedal assembly, clutch, clutch fork, pivot ball, and ive blead the system numerous times.

One other thing to mention. Tre sent me a trans with a 22 spline output shaft and i went and picked up a used 22 spline t-case locally to make the trans work. I havent cross referenced the shifter plate with the shifter linkage on the trans yet to see if they are both for a 91 car, but my mechanic said it all looked right.

Kronus, does your trans make a kind of nasty bearring squealing noise at about 2k rpms?
In the install directions it said that some bearrings dont get oiled under 3k rpm so maybe thats the problem but im begining to think that maybe i have a f'd up bearring in the trans that isnt letting my syncros spin correctly when im trying to shift. Clutch disengagement shouldnt be a problem but im going to look into that too. If it was a disengagement problem it wouldnt be so random.

 

[Caithness]

I have sort of a similar problem on my rebuilt trans (5k miles on it). I have no problems with high-rpm shifts but around-town stuff is really notchy and stiff. The weird thing about my situation is that when I go out and beat on the car and get the clutch/trans heated up it shifts smooth as butter for a few minutes in every gear. I think I may have clutch issues contributing to it. I'm going to fix it with a six puck unsprung disc- my friend's car has an unsprung 4 puck and it shifts much better than my car.

 

[kronus]

T9S1i,

I haven't noticed any squeeling that you've noticed. I still need to bleed my clutch abit too.

 

[TSIfreek]

Kevin make sure your slave is not leaking under the boot causing the clutch not to disengauge fully. If its leaking anything replace it.
To the other poster with the long rant there is no bearings on the syncros. I have never heard of the no oil getting to a bearing untill 3k. The gears are in consant motion even with it in netural. Everything gets oiled with the rotation of the gears since the gears are bathed in oil its a big mess in there if you could see it.

 

[kronus]

Bled my clutch last night, got all the air out of the lines. New issue. The master cylinder is goin. I have a small leak at the rubber grommet under the dash. No biggie, I'll replace that today. Here's the thing that worries me:

I've read that a slow pedal return is a symptom of a dead/dying master cyl. But I've never heard of wierd pressure issues. Last night I would pump the clutch pedal 3 or 4 times to help limp me home. Once I got home, I did some investigating in my drive way. After about 10 pumps, the pedal gets really stiff, and as I reach the top of the clutch stroke the pedal 'chatters' 3 or 4 times. I tried the 10 pumps while driving, and it does the same thing, but as I let the clutch out, the engagement gets rediculously high on the stroke; right before the 3 or 4 chatters...

I'm scared now because I'm desperately trying to figure out this issue, and I have less than a week before I head to Utah. So I'm gonna replace the Master cyl. and see if that takes care of that chatter too, but I'm thinking that it might be something eles. Any ideas?

 

[TSIfreek]

Yea I bet its all in the master. I would not worry about it there can only be so many things in the clutch system. Alot of the problems arise from worn out masters and slaves. If the slave has not been replace ever I would also replace that as well. The extra HD cluthes we put in out cars really make both the slave and master work twice as hard.

 

[kronus]

Yeah, that new MC definitely took care of that wierd chatter. But it seems as if things keep getting worse. Not only was the master cyl. install a pain in my arse, but my clutch is so far out of adjustment that instead of not releasing, it barely grabs. (read: I can let the clutch out and the car will still run at a DEAD STOP. )

After installing the new MC, the pedal got quite stiff. I like it. However, The engagement was at the top of the stroke. And I mean the freakin top of the top. Tried adjusting the engagement point by hand, but I guess since my clutch already was a 'full' pressure from bleeding, I couldn't turn that stupid rod by hand. Course, its around 30 degrees outside, so maybe that had something to do with it. So I guess tomorrow I'll grab my C-clamp and have at it...

Anyway, does that sound right? Since a low engagement point means you need to turn the MC rod towards the MC, a super high engagement would mean that you would need to turn the rod away from the MC. Maybe?

 

[TSIfreek]

yea you will see tomarrow. If you have a high engaugement you turn the rod away from the MC( im sure clock wise into the nut or twards the petal. I think of it as releving pressure so by that the engaument will go down.
Yea I have a FMIC all ready to go just waiting for the warm weather to come around its colder here than were your at and I say FK that noise!!
I dont jump to conclusions with my car anymore it always works out.
Its good to hear that the petal is stiff thats a good thing. I wouldnt worry about it not disengauging that comes with adjustment is all at this point.

 

[kronus]

K. Now I'm tired of the crap. Adjusted the MC rod to right about the middle of the threads. I dunno when this happened, but all of a sudden my clutch throw lost about 2 inches of travel. The dang clutch pedal doesn't even come back to it's resting position. Nothings blocking the pedal in the interior. So now I'm lost. Any ideas?

 

[TSIfreek]

Dont know if you over adjusted it loosened the rod or did not bleed the master out of the car before you put the new one in and still have air in the system? If you did not bench bleed the master go to yahoo search and it will tell you how to do it.
I would first try to tighten the adusting rod and see if that brings your petal back. You should have about 1/2 inch of free play weres theres no pressure but the petal should still go up.

 

[2GeNTSi]

Hmmm I hope I don't run into any problems with my drivetrain once all the work is done. I'm having Newlogics rebuild/swap a 6-bolt in my 2G and having a ACT 2100 and Streetlite flywheel thrown on along with a TRE Stage 2 transmission. My 2nd gear synchro has been bad since I bought the car, so I don't know what it feels like to shift normally into 2nd.

I already sent out the core to TRE so it should be back within a week or so. I'm going to the Philippines for two weeks so everything won't be done until beginning of February. I'll let you know if I have any problems with the drivetrain.

 

[kronus]

^^^ I could almost bet you that it'll take longer than you think to get that TRE tranny back. But just for an update, I talked to Shep himself, and he told me that really, the ideal position for the MC rod is when it has 2-3 threads left before completely falling out. Adjusted it to that position, and everything's great.

P.S. 100th post. Thank you DSMtuners!

 

[2GeNTSi]

Yeah they've had the transmission for a while now, and I haven't received any call or anything about it yet. I'm leaving tonight too, I need to get a hold of Jon.

 

[kronus]

Just be persistent. I finally got mine, and I'd say it was worth it. Despite the hassle. Loves to shift hard, that's for sure.

 

[2GeNTSi]

Yeah I'm trying to be patient about it, they received in on 12/29 and I don't think it's been started on yet. I can't get through on the phone, I always get the recording and you can't even leave a voicemail.

I got an email from him because apparently the transmission I picked up from craigslist is a 1G FWD one and for some reason he thought I have a 420A, but he said it'll be no problem if I have a 4G63. I replied back but I don't know if he read his emails yet.

How long did you end up waiting?

 

[kronus]

Check your PM's. Don't wanna get this locked.

 

[2GeNTSi]

Ah-so, finally received the Stage II TRE tranny the other day. I also went ahead and ordered Prothane Motor Mounts. I called Paul over at Newlogics and he's going to go ahead and order the parts for my 6-bolt rebuild and call me to come in whenever the build is done so I can drop off my car.

I'm getting so anxious...