5-0 Blackbird

Hey guys, just got my firebird finally. It's a 1991 firebird 5.0 tbi 5 speed. On the way home I noticed it went into 3rd hard, then later it didn't wanna go into it. So basically now I can't get into 3rd except for the first few shifts when I brought it home. I don't know if maybe i'm not trying hard enough or what. I had to shift from 2nd to 4th the rest of the way home, but someone told me that their mechanic told them that that will ruin the tranny, is that true? it was only to get it home. Is this a normal prob with the t5? or is anyone else having this trouble? I'm new to driving manual, but I was doing good till it just didn't want to go in 3rd anymore, and I tried a bunch of times so I personally just ruled not shifting correctly (clutch was full to the floor too) out, but i'm not ashamed to say maybe, just maybe it is me. I'll take it out sometime and try again, but I got a gas leak to fix right now. Help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Pat Hall

iTrader: (31)

First off, it absolutely doesn't hurt anything in a manual trans to skip from 2nd to 4th gear, or any other gear for that matter. I skip gears all the time with my Muncie 4 speed since the ratios are so close. I don't need to use all four gears consecutively when driving really mellow. As far as your problem goes, it sounds to me like your 3rd gear synchronizer ring has gone bad. Unfortunately, it'll require tearing down the trans to fix. You might want to go ahead and get a full rebuild kit for it and refresh the whole trans if you have to tear it down anyways. Since you probably haven't broken any gears yet, a basic rebuild kit with sychro rings included ought to take care of it. There's some good prices for the rebuild kits from various sellers on ebay. You'll need the kit for a World Class T5 if you still have the original 91 trans in your car.

Shagwell

- the only thing you could hurt skipping gears would be adding wear to the clutch if you have to slip it. I've gone from 1st to 4th commonly when screwin around(hard launch, then click it in fourth and cruise on.)

5-0 Blackbird

would it matter that it shifts into 3rd perfectly fine when not moving? The main thing I thought is maybe I actually am not getting into 3rd because a friend's dad was looking at it today and he was talking about how short the throw is compared to other cars. I'll find out here this weekend if that is in fact the problem. Thanks for all the help so far.

Pat Hall

iTrader: (31)

That makes it sound even more like it's a synchro ring. A synchronizer ring does exactly what the name implies. When the gears are spinning, the synchro enables the gear to be engaged quickly and smoothly, without grinding and damaging the engagement teeth. When nothing is moving, it's easy to engage the gears, even with a bad syncnro. The synchro ring sort of acts like a brake. It very quickly slows down the spinning gear to enable the slider hub teeth to engage smoothly with the small engagement teeth on the gear (i.e. synchronizes the two parts). Once they get worn out, they're no longer able to slow down the spinning gear to allow smooth engagement with the slider, or shift hub.

Outlaw28

kinda sounds like my problem i cant downshift into 3rd from 4th or 5th i have to hold clutch in and swing it to second and then to third not letting off clutch until in third...i know its hard on clutch but only way i can get it into 3rd..i can upshift to 3rd gear with no problems at all...i havnt been able to solve this problem...i was told on here before it was the shifter but i just installed a new pro 5.0 and that didnt fix the problem

86graybird

If it is the synchro ring you should still be able to double clutch to downshift, correct?