[roy green coupe]

I wanted to make our coupe easier for my wife to drive so after much research on this forum and others I decided to order a synchronized transmission from Mitchell manufacturing. I ordered it through Snyders and waited a couple of months and they were nice enough to call and make sure I still wanted it before they shipped.
I was very impressed with how well the trans was packed and it arrived in good condition. A nice professional looking folder with instructions was included. I took several months to get the trans installed since I did a bunch of other things to the car over the winter.
Finally the day came where I could take the car out for a test. I was primarily focused on the brake adjustments and not the trans , I was so confident it would be fine. Well as others have commented second gear was pretty noisy, probably louder than my stock trans but shifted into high nice and smooth .
This is the part where things take a turn, as soon as I let off the throttle the trans popped out of gear. Well, back to the garage. I have bought other expensive aftermarket parts that didnt work as promised so I guess I shouldnt have been surprised.
In the paperwork that came with the trans there was a page dedicated to what to do if your trans "slides out of first or third gear after installation". Answer: Shift Tower Repositioning.
They go through several things to check after you tear the car back apart and pull the top off the trans. Check the Real Deal oil seal to make sure not interfering with shift rails, check for burrs in holes preventing cover from sliding forward as much as possible, remove gasket from between bell housing and trans top ( only .011" thick) , push shift tower forward as far as possible.
Another test, same result. Its a good thing I like working on old cars. One thing I noticed was when I put the top on it was apparent that the shift fork was too far rearward to line up with the shift collar when in neutral. Attempting to measure this seemed to confirm that moving the cover forward would be a fix but would require removing about .020 " of metal from the front of the shift tower.
Why would a brand new 2000.00 trans need to have this done? There are alot of places for the tolerances to stack up here. The shift fork is made by them,the shift rail with its detent positons is made by them. Perhaps the location of the synchro on the mainshaft varies from one case to the other ?
One thing I am sure of is this problem was built in and has nothing to do with what car it went in. With that said and the fact that Mitchell knows this is a problem and tells you so, I feel this should have been corrected before it was shipped.
The good news is after I machined the cover, basically enough to move forward as much as possible without slotting or enlarging the bolt holes, it now seems ok. I am a little concerned about the plastic shift pads on the forks wearing since this synchro seems to barely work when they are new. I feel very lucky that I didnt have to take this thing out and ship it 3000 miles and wait who knows how long for it to get fixed .
I found many other folks who seem to have had no problems with their Mitchell transmissions. I guess its a crapshoot if you get a good one, shouldnt be that way.
If I had to do this again I wouldnt take a chance on it unless I knew that Mitchell was addressing this problem. Some might ask " did you call Mitchell?". No, I did not , they already know there is a potential problem and said so in the instructions. Cost me 2000.00 and alot of stress to find this out.