Ok, got a 95 Z with 6 speed and having an issue with the tranny.

When you first get in the car it's really hard to get it to go into 1st or R, and sometimes it grinds going in. After you drive it, most times just backing out of my garage is enough, it frees up and you can shift into any gear almost effortless. And once you're out on the road it's fine. It's got just over 200K miles on it so I was about to pull it and have the tranny rebuilt. But someone said something about the throw out bearing maybe being the issue. So I come to the experts, school me and tell me I'm right thinking the tranny needs refreshed.

 

i am wondering if theres some air in the system? have you tried pumping it when its cold and see if that makes any difference. pilot bushing or throwout bearing could be dragging and when it warms up its not.

 

hay stranger, sup in the world

 

Being hard to put in first gear cold can be a couple of things. One of those things is the clutch not disengaging. Grinding going into reverse is normally the first indicator of a clutch not disengaging.
Once the car is moving this motion makes the sync alignment easier even if the clutch is not full disengaging but this is hard on the sync.
As craby suggested the hydraulic system would be the first suspect. If the hydraulic system is working as design my next guess would be a failing diaphragm spring in the pressure plate.

If I remember right you can buy the complete hydraulic system from GM (master, hose and slave) and they are reasonable.

 

I replaced the complete hydraulic's a few years ago. I haven't seen any fluid at all on the ground, but I'll get under there and check that out. I'm planning on taking the tranny out anyway to get refreshed. I'll just check it all and see.

 

Sure test,,, Push clutch in, Start car in neutral, Leave clutch in though out the entire process. Now put car in reverse. Did it grind? No, (clutch is fully disengaging.) Yes, clutch is not disengaging.

With the clutch pushed the whole time there should be no part of the transmission spinning if nothing is spinning then nothing can grind. If you let the clutch out in neutral even for a second that will start the input shaft spinning and grinding going into reverse would be normal. This only works with reverse because reverse does not have synchronizers.

 

I'll try that tomorrow and let you know.

 

So I did your test and it didn't grind at all but it was sure hard to push into 1st and R. So I think that does prove it's the tranny. I got a four day weekend coming up that I'm going to use to pull that sucker out and take it to get rebulit. And suggestion on aftermarket parts to have added into the rebuild? I don't really need to hop it up, but don't mind adding some stuf to make it last longer and shift smoother.

 

Ya that just sounds like slop in the trans. I have the same issue with my t5, she has 210K on her. If I pull it down in second and then go into first it helps. Recently even that does not work every time.

 

That used to work for me as well, but it's not so much anymore either. Mine has almost 203k on it.