okay my brother went to italy for a study abroad thing and left me with his camaro its a 96 v6 3800 II with a 5 speed

now the problem

it shifts into gears okay (sometimes it grinds but not often) but when it is in gear and you try to move it grinds at least in first and reverse

any ideas

also im trying to check the fluid levels on the clutch but have not figured out how

any tips or advice would be appreciated as i have no idea what im doing with MT's never worked on one before

thanks

 

2 things come to mind when I hear this. First are you letting the trans spin down before trying to put it in gear or are you just jamming in it as soon as the clutch is on the foor? You are pushing the clutch all the way to the floor right? If so then I would look at the slave or master going out and not allowing the pressure plate to disengage the clutch disk completely.

Massey

 

I too was thinking the slave cylinder sounds like your clutch isn't quite going in all the way

 

make sure the car is not moving AT ALL when you shift into reverse or you will begin to shred the gears. reverse is not synchronized, its an idler gear that gets slid into place between the outputshaft and countershaft reverse gears, unlike regular speed gears that are always in mesh. the grinding into gear 1st-5th is the synchronizers grinding onto the speed gear dog teeth. like these folks are saying, if the clutch isnt depressed all the way your slave cylinder not bled properly, or pressure plate could be F'ed up.. or its a light foot on the pedal
(what a mouthfull haha)

 

he has been driving this car daily for about a year now and over the last few weeks i have been driving it regularly

this grinding is only a few days old and once it started it got worse quickly

the only problem we had before was while going backwards the car would grind for a half second then be silent then grind and repeate
it would also stop if you took it out of reverse while going back wards
i dont know if this is related

also if any of you have any tips for bleeding the clutch im going to try that tomorrow i think

 

if you havent messed with the hydraulic system and theres no holes anywhere you prob dont need to bleed like i said sounds like the slave is going bad

how many miles on the car??? when was the last time the clutch was changed??? does it slip at all???

im like 90% sure its the slave the other 10% would be the clutch itself

 

are you saying that it grinds when you start moving or when you shift into a gear. if it grinds when you start moving it is probably the clutch (worn out)

 

Do this, start it up and while holding the clutch in see what it does while in neutral. Then try to put it in gear slowly. If it makes any noise during either of these then you probably have a leak in your system and need to replace the whole thing as you can't fix the master to slave portion. To make sure you need to check the slave part that's hidden inside the bell housing. That's a common place for a leak to pop up.