Hi,
Got an `98 20000 miles 6 spd and have recently had an fluid leak between rear of transmission and differential.
Turned out to be transmission extension housing need resealing.
Job was completed here at Selman Chevrolet in Orange CA.

After taking the car home noticed that shifter goes hard in first and reverse especially from a dead stop with engine cold. After driving it for a while seems that the problem almost goes away.

Before all gears were smooth as butter including first and reverse even with cold engine.

What could have happen?

I know that in order to fix the leak they had to drop the diff and also the tranny?

Did they have to disconnect the linkage between shifter and tranny and thats where the problem might be?

Any ideeas? I`m planning to take the car back to the dealer in the morning and like to be somewhat informed so they don`t give me the run arround.

Car didn`t have the problem before i took it in... period. Please advise

Thanx

 

All the other gears are very smooth

 

anyone?

 

I have the same condition without known leak and with B & M Ripper.

 

Change the tramission fluid to Mobil 1 ATF, it will greatly increase your cold shifting. And don't worry about paper blocker rings, all C5s have the upgraded ones.

 

You stated that the service required dropping the trans/diff assembly. That should have required uncoupling the transmission shift rod from the shift control assembly. During re-assembly of the parts perhaps the shift rod clamp torx bolt wasn't properly fitted to the shifter control assembly which has caused shifting problems for others on this forum. It is relatively easy to re-fit and a search of this forum will reveal thread(s) on the topic.

Also, if the service tech loosened the two other torx bolts holding the shift control assembly to the driveline tunnel, shift linkage adjustment typically is required. This adjustment should improve your first and reverse shifts unless other problems exist within the transmission itself. Existing threads about this adjustment also are on this forum and on the Corvettemechanic forum as well. Hope these rather simple "fixes" bring your shifting back to normal.

A1

 

Here's the adjustment procedure...


Once you remove the trim bezel and rubber isolation boot, you will see this.



Simply put the transmission in neutral with the Ebrake on, loosen the 3 Torx fasteners, 2 on the torque tube and one on the pinch bolt for the shifter rod.

Drop the pin into the slot (Use an allen wrench or drill bit if your pin is missing…) and retorque the fasteners, all 3 to 30 N.M or 22 ft lbs. The 2 torque tube fasteners first, then the pinch bolt. Pull the pin back up, that’s it.

****The following is copied from another Thread and is good info****

This made a big improvement, but I ocassionally would still get hung up getting into first. I took apart the console again and noticed that even with the alignment pin "in'and all 3 torx bolts loose the shifter "box" still had about 2 milimeters play forward and back. In other words you can tighten the shifter box after you push the shifter box to the front part of this play or to the back part of this play. I decided to try pushing the shifter box all the way forward, tighten everything and drive the car. This made my first gear selection problem COMPLETELY disappear BUT now second felt a bit "crunchy" going in and 3rd and 4th gear were not as easy as before. So I tried moving the shifter box to the back of the possible play and drive the car. My first gear problem came back worse than ever, but the rest of the gears were relatively smoother but not perfect.

I was back to square one... So I took a break, and when I came back i decided to totally remove the shifter box and analyze this problem. Once I removed the shifter I noticed that there is a half moon shaped cut out on the shift shaft that the 3rd torx bolt goes through. This cut out prevents the shift shaft from completely coming out of the clamp if the bolt got loose, and is obviously, exactly where the bolt is designed to go through the clamp.

What I did was I installed the shifter box back with only the 2 torx that hold it to the tunnel finger tight and left out the 3rd torx completely. I took a flash light and shined it down the hole.
where the bolt goes in the clamp. It turns out that the cut out on the shift shaft can be a milimeter forward of the clamp or a milimeter aft of the clamp and the bolt will still go into the clamp fine and you can tighten it in any of these positions. Thus the 2 milimeters of play.

I made an educated guess that the cut out on the shaft should be EXACTLY aligned with the hole in the clamp (not a bit forward or back even though the bolt will still fit)
so I aligned the cut out on the shaft so perfectly that when you shined a light down the hole the cut out on the shaft was not even noticeable. You could just see a pefectly round hole. I then tightened the 2 torx on the torque tube to spec and checked to see if anything moved. Nothing moved and the shaft cut out was still perfectly aligned with the hole in the clamp that holds the 3rd torx. I carefully placed the 3rd torx in the clamp and since the it was so well ligned up it I could tighten it with my fingers (up to a point of course) then I carefully thightened it to spec (22 ft pounds) trying not to place any down pressure on the bolt, just rotational pressure enough to get to spec.

Buttoned it all back up and WOW. All gears went in perfectly. First smooth as silk, second smooth with no crunch, third and fourth with one finger, fith and sixth smooth.

After this, I changed the transmission fluid to the Redline D4 ATF you guys recommend, and that made the shifting even smoother.

 

Performed both procedures (not fluid change), the Ripper is smoother and shift effort greatly reduced. Anyone with tough shifting should try this.

This link helped me get to where you need to work: [url]https://www.corvetteforum.com/techtips/viewsubtopic.php?SubTopicID=28&TopicID=1

 

Not true, I have a 98 and I had the paper blocker rings in mine. I'm not sure if this is exactly the case but I'm assuming that the ones made by borg-warner had the paper rings and got switched over to the carbon rings when the transmissions were manufactured by tremec.

If I had a 98 or older I wouldn't switch to synthetic fluid.

Luke

 

I will try it. My first and second is a little tough when it's cool out. Warm it is good.