Gear Grinding

Of course you know that the "gears" do not grind in a synchronized gearbox, but the synchros do, probably because they are worn or damaged. Your troubles sound just like my own - For information, I have already purchased a low-mileage, replacement gearbox, and will install it shortly. Good chance this is what you're looking at.

GF

I don't have any experience of the 9000, but I'd guess it won't have sychromesh on reverse so "they all do that sir". As for third, it's probably the synchromesh getting a bit tired on that gear. It could easily carry on for huge mileages in that state, but you'll need to get used to matching the speed a bit more accurately to avoid the crunching i.e. wait a bit longer for it to spin down in neutral before pushing it into third. Changing oil spec might help, but if you want to really fix it, then it'll probably need a gearbox re-build.

I doubt it's the clutch, otherwise reverse would be practically impossible to select with the engine running. Presumably, once you've selected reverse(with or without the crunch) you can happily change between neutral and reverse without crunching?

Cheers,

Colin.

Just to wind up the pedantic wick a bit higher, The gears *do* grind as well as the synchro sleeves - they grind against each-other :o)

Cheers,

Colin.

Well, maybe your gears "grind" against each other, but mine just quietly transmit power!!

I don't know about the 9000 either, but my 900 is synchronized in reverse, so I would guess the "high-end" 9000 would be too.

As for third, it's

I agree - it could go a long time once you get used to nursing it. But it coul also break in city traffic. The OP's concern about metal pieces in suspension is legitimate, and he probably finds shavings on the magnetic plug when he changes transmission oil.

Changing oil spec might help, but if you want

Funny, it seems re-building has gone out of style. Now that I a changing out my gearbox, I thought I could get at least a few dollars for my old one, which runs fine, and probably needs nothing more than a couple of synchros to be good again - but no one wants it. "What on earth would you do with a used gearbox" they all say.

Greg

[snip]

Heh. The first time I went to California I was amazed that what was a relatively old vehicle was going in for a new transmission. Except, stuff doesn't rust in central / southern California so used values are solid. In the UK, once a car reaches a certain age* it's considered more economical to chop it in / scrap it for a replacement.

My more-garage aware colleague says that it's not cost effective to strip down and rebuild many things in Western countries, instead, replacing it for a new or reconditioned unit is cheaper for the customer. "So where is it reconditioned?" I asked. "At the factory, which is often located somewhere with cheap labour..."

*as to that age, it depends very much on the body condition... :)

For what it's worth, I'll throw in another two possibilities (probably not the source of your problem though). Many years ago I had very similar symptoms, on two different cars. On one, turned out that the pressure plate diaphragm spring had distorted, and the clutch, therefore, wouldn't fully disengage. On another car, stored for a long time, the splines supporting the clutch disk rusted so the disk didn't move fully away from the flywheel when released.

The gears don't grind against each-other, they grind against the synchro sleeves.

Yep. Just checked and my 9-3 has it too. For some reason I thought it was rare to have sychro on reverse. I must be getting out-of-date.

Agreed, it might fail sooner, but it's unlikely that the OPs fault will cause the gearbox to fail in a stranding-you kind of way. swarf in the oil might cause more wear in the rest of the gearbox, but its already well past it's best. The failure mode will be that the duff synchros will just get worse until the driver can't stand it any more and does something about it. It might even get to the stage where it starts jumping out of gear, but the car will still go along.

That's probably me being out-of date again then. I did have a gearbox re-built on my last 9-3 though. Then-again, I reckon that was just the shyster garage ripping off the warranty company.

Cheers,

Colin.

I have a similar problem which developed very recently on my '93 classic 900 T16S convertible. This is a synchro failure on the change into 2nd, which is very difficult to adapt to since that change tends to be a fairly quick and aggressive one, even in day-to-day driving. I'm having an oil stabiliser added on Friday - this is apparently derived from some Formula 1 technology and "adds lubricity" - and there's a hope that this'll ease the sticking and settle the 'box down for another few thousand miles.

Otherwise, I'm into a new gearbox - =A32,000+ and =A3700 labour at a guess - or a reconditioned one - very hard to find with low mileage and T16S ratios, I'm told and I'm still in for =A31,500 or more including labour. Last option is to buy my friend's T8 classic for a grand and cannibalise the gearbox from that: slightly different ratios, but you'd get away with it - but bonkers labour to remove it from one car and put into the other.

Alternatively sell mine as a project and switch into his...

I'm no mechanic, but it seems crazy that there isn't a solution under =A31,000 for one minor mechanical glitch on a car that is otherwise running like a dream.

Oh, and mine's always coughed into reverse unless at almost zero revs...

Don't worry - there will be plenty of other things that come along to make this expense look trivial! ;-)

Look these guys up :

Otherwise, keep checking eBay - set up an automatic search agent. I got a low-mileage gearbox for $300. Granted a "classic" may be a bit tougher, but there are plenty of wrecks being parted out. With the 94-98 "NG" models you have to be careful in getting the right gearbox for your engine - don't know if this is the case with the older "classic". I would advise against installing a gearbox with the wrong ratios in it. These are closely matched to the power curve of your engine, and the variance can be high from one model to the other.

GF