Recently my 98 Camaro T56 has developed a grind into third gear... It will ONLY grind if I shift quickly though, If I shift slowly it shifts beautifully. what concerns me is that it only does this in third gear. It also shifts rather hard in general (especially into reverse!). It has a monster level II clutch with a brand new slave cylinder. It currently has a stock master cylinder which is believed to be at least part of why it shifts hard. I have ordered a Tick performance adjustable master and am awaiting arrival so I can install it. What I am mostly concerned about is this 3rd gear grind... I find it odd that it will only grind when shifting fast. Any ideas what would cause this????

Thankss

 

When you say shifting fast, do you mean down with the pedal quick, a fast 2-3, then back up quick with the pedal. Or do you mean a little more leisurely on the pedal time, but doing a fast 2-3 shift? Could be a worn 3rd gear synchro, or the pressure plate isn't disengaging fully or not fast enough, which could mean possible sluggish hydraulics.

 

If clutch is causing hard shifts that means the engine is transferring power through the transmission while shifting. Syncs are wear items and this greatly increases the wear. A worn sync is not going to un-wear after you you fix the clutch issue. It may not grind as much once the clutch is fixed but it will not shift as smooth as the gears that are currently not grinding.

 

I mean physically shifting fast, I can go super slow on the pedal but if I try to move the shifter quickly from second to third it will grind just about every time. This issue got CONSIDERABLY worse with he new clutch thats why I'm hoping the new master cylinder will help. by any menas, are synchros something that I could tackle or are those something that would definitely need to go to a professional?

 

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The harder you shift, or force a gear change the more you need sync. I am an older guy, my dad taught how to shift a pre-sync transmission. if you know how to double clutch and how to match the engine RPMs you don't even need sync. There is a flow to non-sync shifting. I use to mess with friends that had bad syncs, I would test drive their cars with them in it and it did not grind. I would tell them there transmission was fine they just need to learn how to drive.

If you need a pro depends on you, Grab a manual out of the manual section and check out the process. As a general rule manual trans are easy to work on but very unforgiving and may require special tools , If you make a mistake there is a good chance something will get broken. I always recommend rear and trans work should go to a pro. Not only a pro but a pro that has done many of that model.

 

Good to know for sure, will get back with the results of the master cylinder upgrade!

 

Update. Installed Tick Master cylinder, Significantly helped with shifting into reverse and did improve shifting in general however, 3rd still grinds just as bad so it will unfortunately still need a trans rebuild. I would like to go stage 2... anyone have any rebuild kit recommendations?

 

psi has a stage 2 kit $149.00 depends on how much you want to spend ,transgo makes a cheaper one ,I have B&M stage 2 in my Automatic, smooth shifting