Mystery tranny problem

[monkeymaker]

So Andie's cruising back from Monterey some weeks ago and she can't get the car into 6th gear. Naturally I think that she must be doing something wrong. She isn't. The shifter felt totally locked out of it, as if there was no 6th gear to go into... no grinding, no notchy feel, nothing!

Being the procrastinator that I am, I immediately jump right on this issue by continuing to drive the car semi-regularly, ignoring the problem in the hopes that it will remedy itself. And the weird thing is... IT DID, as weeks later the problem magically disappeared! WTF??!

Ever since I've felt no discernable problems when shifting from any gear to any other, so what gives? Does anyone have any thoughts as to what may have caused this? And how worried should I be about tracking it Friday?

[C G]

I had that problem with 3rd gear. It seemed to come and go as it pleased. When there was no 3rd gear you couldn't even feel a notch between 1st and 5th. It was a PITA! They ended up replacing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear sets while trying to fix it.

[monkeymaker]

They ended up replacing the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear sets while trying to fix it. Was it warranty work or did they claim "driver abuse" and charge you?

[C G]

Originally posted by monkeymaker
Was it warranty work or did they claim "driver abuse" and charge you?

They had the car three weeks and repaced the clutch while they had it. I had been complaining about it for about six of the ten months I had owned the car. This was before the clutch TSB and it sounded like a bucket of bolts most of the time. They wanted to charge me for part of the clutch job and finally agreed to cover it. They couldn't explain the 3rd gear problem at all so they never "said" abuse about that. In fact the dealer was very happy to have a local winning autocrosser running an S2000. They told EVERY S2000 customer about my car. They also knew that while I was autocrossing the car I was not abusing it. The big problem was the rear diff. After trying to shift into third gear at high RPM's and not having even a notch for it I was coasting down in speed while still trying to get it to go in. Finally it slid in as smooth as butter. Problem was it was first and not third and when I came off the clutch I had about a one second lock up of the rear end before I got back on the clutch. No over rev, I wasn't going all that fast by the time it when in, maybe 47 or 48 mph. Anyway after this I had a whine from the diff. I was honest with them about it and even talked with AHM about it. I didn't feel it was abuse because while I did put it in the wrong gear I did it because of the tranny problem. They finally agreed to do a one time diff fix. They also informed me that I had abused the diff because a LSD is not made to take tight turns such as you would find in an autoX.

This was when I knew I would not own this car out of warrenty.

[dlq04]

I've rebuilt a couple manual transmission's. That's weird. My first thoughts are something jammed or something slipped. As we all know, these things seldom correct themselves; instead, they return in a more severe way.

[Greg Stevens]

I have to agree with Dave here. Unless there was just something very odd going on with something (yea, that was pretty vague! :p ) ... these kinds of things don't just 'go away' as much as we would all like them to.

But it sounded to me like a synchro was not doing its thing, but then I don't think 6th has a synchro...can anyone confirm that?

I wouldn't worry about it freaking out on you at your next track event, but I would have it looked at when you can.

I agree with CG about having an S2000 that's been driven hard (like mine) and it be out of warranty. I would be one nervous SOB...!

But does anyone know for sure if 6th has a synchro? I don't know for sure...

[dlq04]

A triple-cone synchronizer is used in 2nd and double-cones are used in 1st, 3rd, and 4th gears and singles are used for 5th and 6th. Early reports (R&T, Jan ‘99) stated triple-cones were used in the lower three gear’s but in fact it’s only second gear.

In explaining the triple-cone, it’s said if you were to hold the gear and synchros in your hand you would have a gear, one brass synchro ring, a steel ring and another brass synchro ring. The smaller brass ring has only one "working" surface in 1st,3rd,4th. But in 2nd both sides of the ring rub, the inside on the gear and the outside on the steel ring that connects to the gear and is spinning with the gear. The outside ring only has one working surface. So there are 3 surfaces on 2nd gear that are friction surfaces and thus.....triple cone.

Neutral lies on the 3rd / 4th gear axis.

Reverse is syncro’d as well.

[Slick Rick]

That very same thing happened to me on the track.

What it is is that the 5th gear has something that's buggered up on the shaft and keeps it from going into 6th. It has happened to a few people, actually.

Does anybody know where to get STEEL replacement synchros?

[dlq04]

Originally posted by Slick Rick
That very same thing happened to me on the track.

What it is is that the 5th gear has something that's buggered up on the shaft and keeps it from going into 6th. It has happened to a few people, actually.

Does anybody know where to get STEEL replacement synchros?

No but I mention, in case you've not heard, the '04 model due out will have carbon synchros in all but reverse gear.