hard to get in gear when speed-shifting

[tronno]

ok,i've searched the forums but cant find anyone with the same problem im haveing.i cant get my car into gear when i speed-shift.if i shift normally, it goes into gear fine.but when im raceing and i need to shift fast, i cant because it wont get into gear.let me know what you guys think.

 

[Old Mitsu Tech]

Use synchromesh. Speaking for myself and myself only. I went to 15-40 Mobil one full synthetic engine oil. Shifting is a breeze in my 92 n/t which is my daily driver. I'll let everyone know within a few months how it turns out.

So far, so good.

 

[S_Ranger]

Where exactly is the drain and filler plug on the tranny? How many quarts does it take? There wasn't much of a fluid selection for manual transmission cars so lmk what my best bet besides motor oil is. I trust your advice, but I'd wait to see the final results on your test.

 

[MrBoxx]

Drain plug on the bottom, fill plug on the front side.

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2.3 quarts says the VFAQ. I used Royal Purple (gear oil, not engine oil) in my tranny and my rear diff when I changed them last year. No complaints so far.

 

[S_Ranger]

Thanks for the quick reference.

 

[project_tsi]

Sound like your stock synchro's are getting old and won't shift perfectly. Very common.
Easiest thing to do is change to BG Synchroshift, like others have stated. It DOES work great!

As for filling up the tranny, fill until the fluid starts pouring out of the fill hole.

 

[MrBoxx]

That works too.

Just a tip we learned when we did mine: If you cut the tip of the cap of gear oil small enough, you can use a large vacuum line and run it directly into the filler hole. This works if you don't have the right size funnel or one of those fancy pumping tubes they sell now. It works especially well on the rear diff, since the fill hole is actually above the rear bumper's lower level, so the bottle would end up pointing slightly up.

 

[talonracn49]

#1 understand that if you tear it up it will be very expensive.

#2 Check your engine mounts and make sure that they are in good condition. Consider upgrading to urethane. When you are accelerating hard, the engine will rock in the engine bay. Your gears are shifted by cables. If the engine is rocked too far, the cables will be in tension, or not aligned correctly. This will cause the tranny not to shift, or to go to neutral and then "lock" you out of the next gear when you try to shift. The urethane mounts will hold the engine and tranny firmly in place, and should allow for faster, more reliable shifts.

#3 Your car should be considerably faster than most other street cars -- so give the tranny/synchros a break and let the turbo do the talking

I agree with the synchromesh fluid suggestions as well.

Good luck and have fun tearing up the RICE!

 

[Derek]

The first thing they taught us in racing school was that "Speed shifting" does nothing other than create tension on your drivetrain, and upset the movement of the car. It gains you no speed whatsoever. Shift quickly, but don't try and be as fast as an automatic.

 

[Keshav]

having syncros is a compromise. speed for smoothness. If you want to slam between gears, get a dogbox. there are no synchros to mess up and it will handle tons of power, but you can't shift slow and smooth.

If you continue to drive it like you stole it you will break things. I am speaking from experience here.

This is a great primer on shifting, ignore the fact that it was directed towards Impreza owners.
http://www.spdusa.com/shifting.htm

 

[cagedbull]

or he could just not know how to speed shift??? do you push the clutch all the way down???

 

[Black Venom]

What RPM are you shifting at?

 

[GVR4592]

In my never ending quest to improve the shifting of my transmission I was looking through www.vfaq.com and came across an article about fixing shifter movement. My shifter didn't really move all that much but I figured it wouldn't hurt to check it out. When I took the case off and found the bolts were being held on by the locking tabs, I was very thankful for the vfaq. I retorqued them and now when I shift it feels smoother than it ever has. There is no notchy feeling.

 

[Derek]

Get the Symborski underhood and base shifter bushings.

One of the biggest proponents to our bad shifter feel is that the whole shifter assmebly is attached to the car with rubber bushings; which was Mitsu's attempt to keep vibration down in the shifter unit. ( I suppose they figuired this would bother a lot of people).

The Symborski kit replaces these with hard metal ones, and gives the whole shifter a much more exact feel.