kflohrit

So the car is a 98 6 speed with ~114k miles on it. I bought it from an older gentleman that took very good care of it and had literally every receipt for the car...including light bulbs, car washes, battery....everything. The car showed no sign of abuse and I was confident in purchasing a higher mileage car that was well maintained. He did inform me that the rear end had a significant leak and that was part of the reason I got the car at a good price. I of course drove the car and it shifted very smoothly showing no signs of wear. After driving the car 150+ miles back home and occasionally for about a month I decided to take the car to what I believed was a competent local shop who had excellent reviews. From talking to them, I was comfortable letting them work on the car. They pulled the rear end and transmission since one of the rubber gaskets on the trans was leaking as well. It was the rubber ring that seals the tailshaft to the front casing of the trans.

When I got the car back, it was hard to get into 1st gear (not previously a problem). In order to do so, I have to come hard to the left using some muscle and then slowly move the shifter forward. It also pops out of second gear when going from first to second and at times grinds going into second gear. Once it is in second gear for any amount of time, it stays. If I hold back on the shifter and slowly let out on the clutch, it either acts fine or I feel a slight "jump" and it's in gear. None of the other gears have any problems. I noticed the shifter doesn't spring back to the middle when in neutral like it used to and it squeaks when you move the shifter side to side in neutral. In addition to this, when the car is in 3rd gear, the shifter looks as though it's in 1st gear.

The shop has agreed to look at the car and see if the tech didn't re-install the shifter correctly. However, I'm hesitant to let them get into it again. They warranty their work for 1 year or 12k miles. They said that if the tech installed something wrong, they would make it right, but I had some issues with communication the first go around and they didn't take their time putting everything back together. My Corsa exhaust (which had less than 100 miles on it) had a scratch on the bottom of the tip, was covered in grease hand prints and the tips were crooked as hell. The center console now has a tear on the lid at the front edge near the parking brake and the shifter boot doesn't fit snug around the base perimeter. Fortunately, there are no leaks anymore and the rearend is now nice and quiet.

Does this sound like something that can be cured by a simple shifter adjustment? I don't want to take anything apart and it not fix it, then take it to them and they say I did something to screw it up by jacking with the shifter.

I am mechanically inclined so removing and reinstalling the shifter is not my concern. I've removed two T-56's from two different GTO's I've owned in the past and replaced clutches in them without any issues. My concern is it not being the issue after I have attempted and failed to fix it.

I don't want to buy a new transmission simply because a shop screwed stuff up during a leak repair.

Pounder

the shifter alignment is very important !!!

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nt-advice.html

neutron82

take it back and have them look at it... to me it sounds like there is an issue where the shift linkage connects to the shift box... my car had a similar issue and I knew my trans was ok but upon further investigation I found that I had worn out the bolt that holds the shift linkage to the shift box... there is a groove in the shift box that lines up with the linkage and a bolt goes through that, well somehow I mangled that bolt up but only in the middle threads where it rests in the groove... the bottom threads were perfect so I know I didn't strip the bolt installing it... the only thing I could think of is hard shifting caused it to happen, it's weird nonetheless... the shop didn't necessarily need to remove the shift box to pull the trans/diff but if they did and it isn't aligned properly then that could also be a problem

kflohrit

Yes, unfortunately I wasn't the one that put it back together, otherwise I would've paid close attention to these things.

kflohrit

I am getting a MGW shifter soon. I was thinking I may try that first and then if it doesn't cure it, put the OEM back in and take it back to them.

neutron82

I have an mgw shifter, great shifter but I highly doubt it will solve this problem... pull your shifter boot off and take a look at where the box is joined to the linkage... move the shifter around from side to side and shift into different gears... when I was having this problem my shifter was moving independently of the linkage and that's when I pulled the bolt out and found out what happened... this is not my car but just for illustration purposes, the bolt in question is circled

Bill Curlee

I AGREE

Also ask them what Transmission Fluid that they used. It MUST be NON SYNTHETIC ATF for the early T-56 Trans.

As mentioned above,, make sure that there is NO lost motion between the box and the shift rod. Also the four bolts that secure the shifter to the box need to be tight.

kflohrit

The tech and I had a conversation in the beginning about how the Borg Warner transmission can't receive synthetic fluid as it hurts the syncros. He understood at the time, so hopefully didn't forget. Since it did this the day I got it, I'm doubting fluid is the issue. I'm going to look at it tomorrow.

oharal

Following closely. I have a very similar anomaly with my 02 transmission. Sometimes the shifter squeaks and occasionally (seems especially when cold) I feel a weird jump/push back on the shifter going into 2nd. It's been this way off and on for several months and I've had my fluid replaced less than a month ago. Next is to try realigning my MGW shifter.

kflohrit

The only squeak is from the shifter and it's when doing a side to side neutral check. But yes, it's more apparent when cold.

neutron82

here is the bolt that somehow got mangled up... this is after I tried running a die over it to clean the threads up which didn't completely fix it... you can clearly see the damaged area, before I cleaned the threads up it was basically just a flat spot where the bolt lines up with the notch in the shift rod

kflohrit

Found this after taking out the center console...

Pounder

just one loose or all 4 ????? the shaft bolt ?????

Bill Curlee

LMAO! That is funny! Also look at the rubber bushings under that bolt head. They are pretty much toast. Contact ZIP Corvette and get their replacement bushings. I believe they have them in nylon that are stiffer and last forever.

The picture of the shifter with the top off is my 02 ZO6. You can see that the ZO6 does NOT have rubber bushings. You can remove that rubber bushing and use a large FLAT WASHER and LOCK the shifter solid in place like the ZO6 shifter.

YES, when the shiftbox DEFLECTS or SQUIRMS AROUND when you shift, it will cause missed gears and hard shifting!

Bill

kflohrit

I think I will try that! I adjusted the shifter and it works great! They didn't tighten them as much as they needed and didn't have the shifter in the right position. Now it shifts like a new car!

neutron82

glad you were able to get it fixed and it was something simple

73Corvette

Good job and NICE pics Neutron82

oharal

Not to hijack the thread but since I described an issue i will explain what I found for anyone who finds this post searching for the symptoms I had. I removed the shifter and did find the shifter box to be badly out of adjustment. With the shifter removed, the shift rod bucket thing was pointed off to the left as though an unseen force was pushing an invisible shifter toward the 1-2 side. I aligned it all using the mgw tool and instantly the car was transformed. I wish I had done this when I got the car in April! The shifter was always stiff but I thought it was normal for a racy shifter in a sports car but man was it effed up. The car shifts like butter now and seriously feels like a showroom new car. I love it even more! I still get a weird feeling in the stick shifting 1-2 when the trans is cold though but I guess it's just a part of driving a car with a tractor transmission in 30°F weather.