My 82 4x4, GL wagon I just picked up has a problem. When Shifting I have a hard time finding third gear. I'll start to let the clutch out and it starts to grind like I don't have it all the way in. After several tries I can finally get it in third. No problems in any other gear. It shifts fine with no grinding, just hard to get it to get in third. Any ideas? Is there an adjustment to the shifter and associated linkagage that might be out of wack?

 

Bill

The 5speed dual range I installed seems to be hard to get into 3rd also. I'm chalking it up as a bad synchronizer for 3rd but I honestly dont know.

 

What I find helpfull is to be sure the engine/tranny are READY for 3rd. Cant shift too early or its gonna be trouble. If I hang out too long in 4th while slowing down I sometimes have to skip 3rd, brake, then go into 2nd instead Rev matching definatly and sometimes double clutching helps get into 3rd.

 

Heard lots of rave around Redline products. Might help but certainly wont fix whats broken.

 

Good luck!

My 83 DR GL wagon has exactly the same problem, just not as bad. Maybe once a day. I'm glad you asked the question, I just hope somebody has a good answer for us. I have a spare tranny, this might be my excuse to dig it out and harvest a part for the repair.

When we picked up our 83' gl wagon it wouldnt shift into 3rd at all, at 210k on it we decided replacing the tranny w/ a used 4spd (which is what it had originally) would do just fine and it did, just my 2 cents

Very common. Nothing you can really do except replace the tranny or rebuild it.

 

Either the syncro is gone, or one of these fell out:

 

They are syncro "alignment" dodads - Both McBrat and Myself have found these stuck to our drain plugs.... Mine still works - grinds on the downshift into third. Mick's was operable, but made some horrible noises apparently.

 

 

GD

If the synchro assy. is just sticking and not actually broken I highly recomend RED LINE MTL. make sure the shift bushings are all in proper order. I assume there is no shifter slop?

if its come apart like GD says then yeah you are SOL

I have a grind if I shift too fast from first to second and it will pop out of second if I lug it too much? I'm sure it's a syncro prob too...

 

Tell me about this red line stuff? I have never heard of it?

 

Links?

Thanks,

Glenn

Red line makes a whole line of synthetic fluids. they are verry high quallity and cost a bit more than your standard synthetic stuff. its verry popular in racing.

manufactured here in the bay area.

the MTL is specificly designed for manual transmissions. I have used it on many cars with great results.

Red Line (brand name) is a high performance gear oil - it does help with bad syncro's sometimes. I run it in my wagon's tranny, but at $8 a quart you are already well on your way to the cost of another tranny by the time you fill it up..... (3.5 quarts I think...)

 

GD

I had the exact same issues. I cured it with a new tranny. With a hoist and two guys we did it in less than one hour, and didn't pull the axles from the hubs. now I have two spare trannys, one with third gear out and another that wont shift out of reverse, I hope to make one out of the two for a good solid spare.