knightrider said:
also if i shift like a grandma it doesnt grind.If my syncros are out wouldnt it grind regardless?
no, not exactly. the purpose of a synchro is to "mesh" the two gears since they arent at moving at the same speed. regardless of what gear you are in, ALL gears in the transmission are in motion if the transmission is engaged (ie. if you are in 3rd gear, 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and i believe even reverse are all moving, but its only 3rd that is engaged). its just a matter of which gear is engaged. when you shift slowly (aka like a grandma) you are pretty much reducing the amount of work the synchros do. when they are worn out, they dont operate effectively at higher revolutions.
think of a mountain bike, and the gear shifter on the rear chain gears. when you flip the lever on the handle bar to change gear, the little lever on the back slowly moves the chain to engage whatever gear you selected. now, imagine you are pedaling super fast and you make the switch while still pedaling fast....what happens? the gear shifter on the back still works as its designed to do, but not as effective at the higher speed. it might either skip a tooth or worse, make the chain fall off (thats happened a few times to me...). same concept applies to the t-45. even with perfectly working (and perfect condition) synchros, it can still grind from time to time because of the higher speeds.
all this means is that if it grinds from time to time, mainly when you are going from 6k rpms in 1st to 2nd as fast as you can, its normal. you dont have a racing transmission so dont expect a DD transmission to work perfectly under extreme conditions. now, since you say that it pretty much grinds every single time you shift, and you arent shifting fast, and it doesnt grind when you granny shift, to me that shows that the synchros are worn out. its the same basic principle, that at higher speeds the synchros arent as effective...except that with worn out synchros, that "higher speed" is much lower than normal.
a few other things to take into consideration before you blame the synchros 100%.
1) when was the last time you checked the transmission fluid? even tho there isnt a dip stick to check it with, there is a fill hole on the side of the trans that you can open, put your finger in, and if the fluid is level with the bottom edge of the fill hole, you are good. if you have to bend your finger down at all to touch any fluid, you are low and that might be whats causing your symptoms depending on how low you are.
2) when was the last time you serviced the fluid? you said you just bought it, right? (as a general rule, everytime i buy a car, the first thing i do after i get it insured is to flush all the fluids in the car, to start "fresh", so to speak) if you open up the fill hole and smell burnt oil, chances are its been awhile. if the oil is a dark red instead of a see-thru bright red, its time to change it. there are no filters, so its as simple as opening the drain plug, letting it drain out, closing the drain plug, and then re-filling it until it starts to overflow from the fill hole. Ford made it easy and confusing for us. easy because our transmissions use Automatic Transmission Fluid (ATF). confusing because just about everyother manual transmission uses gear lube instead of ATF.
--as you drain the fluid, if towards the end (or at any time) the oil looks to have a metalic look to it, that "metalic" part is the pieces of the synchros. doesnt mean you have to change them out, it just means youve been wearing them out. if the new oil doesnt fix it, then its a sure-fire "replace my synchros!" message from your transmission--
3) when was the last time you adjusted the clutch, or better yet how old is the clutch? a worn out clutch or misadjusted clutch could also be causing the problems, but i would 80% rule this one out. whenever its a clutch issue, it doesnt affect just one or two gears, but it affects every single gear. still something to look into.
if you want to, after you check the oil, or before, it doesnt matter, add a bottle of the Ford Friction Modifier. take off the shifter (unscrew the shifter ball, take off the shifter bezel -- it just pops off -- take off the 4 screws that hold the shifter dust shield in place, then remove the 4 screws that hold the shifter to the transmission. dont loose the plastic cup that comes on either the bottom of the shifter ball or stays in the transmission.....if it comes off, put it back on) and add it thru there. much easier than adding it thru the fill hole on the side of the transmission.
hope this helps, and if you have any more questions, let me know, hopefully i can help out some more
oh, btw, you can rule out the shift forks. if any of them had been damaged, you would feel a consistant grinding/hard to go in gear/popping out of gear, and it would only affect the gears in a vertical respect. there are only 3 shift forks in the transmission, the first one controls the 1st and 2nd gear engagements, the 2nd one controls the 3rd and 4th gear engagements, and the 3rd one controls the 5th and reverse engagements. had you damaged any of them, it would affect both of the gears that particular fork controls. you mentioned that it grinds 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and on occasion, 4th. had it been a shift fork, it would have caused consistant problems with all four gears, not just 3 of them.
(PS. awesome screen name. that was my favorite show when i was a kid)
