Grinding gears

[Ian in Mississauga]

I've been having trouble lately shifting gears quietly. I figured a little adjustment of the clutch release arm was all that was required, it's always worked before and I had more than enough free play. This time it was different, after several adjustments of 1/2 turn the problem is still there. Next I shifted into neutral and took the tower off the tranny. When I spin the motor with the starter and the clutch pedal fully depressed the input shaft (main drive gear) and the cluster gear continue to spin. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

[Marshall V. Daut]

Try lowering your idle speed to help reduce clashing between gears while shifting.
Marshall

[Bob C]

Originally Posted by Ian in Mississauga

I've been having trouble lately shifting gears quietly. I figured a little adjustment of the clutch release arm was all that was required, it's always worked before and I had more than enough free play. This time it was different, after several adjustments of 1/2 turn the problem is still there. Next I shifted into neutral and took the tower off the tranny. When I spin the motor with the starter and the clutch pedal fully depressed the input shaft (main drive gear) and the cluster gear continue to spin. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

Maybe that's the problem, you have to much free play.


Bob

[eagle]

Check to see if the clutch arm is cracked. No, the input shift should stop within a very short time of pressing the clutch. Adjust the clutch for 1 inch freeplay.

[Jacksonlll]

Three of those clutch actuating arms have broken in our club. We are all switching to the new welded arm.

[Ian in Mississauga]

Thanks for your help guys. I should have added that I had the idle set barely above stall speed and of course the starter spins the motor even slower. The free play has been adjusted gradually from about 1 1/4"" to 5/8". I know about cracked clutch release arms and mine is o.k. but I carry a spare. Mine has the 3/16" pin and the new replacements use the 5/16"pin.

[Jim/TX/GA]

Originally Posted by Ian in Mississauga

I've been having trouble lately shifting gears quietly. I figured a little adjustment of the clutch release arm was all that was required, it's always worked before and I had more than enough free play. This time it was different, after several adjustments of 1/2 turn the problem is still there. Next I shifted into neutral and took the tower off the tranny. When I spin the motor with the starter and the clutch pedal fully depressed the input shaft (main drive gear) and the cluster gear continue to spin. Is that the way it's supposed to be?

The test you have done is not really meaningful. You only have to have a little bit of friction in the Pilot Bearing or have the clutch disk just barely touching the flywheel or the pressure plate and it's going to spin the gears in the transmission in the setup you have, even when stepping on the clutch pedal. Put the tower back on.

What oil are you using in the transmission? Is it thick? Is it at the proper level?

How many seconds do you pause in neutral before going to the next gear?

I see you are in Canada. Has the temperature dropped quite a bit? That makes the oil in the transmission thicker and it slows down the gears that spin inside the transmission quicker. So try shifting from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3 a bit more quickly, hardly pausing in neutral, before the gears spin down quite as much. See if that helps.

After driving for a while, when the oil gets hot, you may have to wait a bit longer in neutral between gears.

Let us know what you find.
.

[Big hammer]

Back in the day when I was in high school, with 600w oil in the transmission,it got so cold I couldn't change gears until driving in low gear for at least a block. Also that winter I learned to put the gear shift in the gear that I would be leaving in, one morning it took both hands to move the gear shift.

[rocket1]

possibly the flywheel pilot bearing is seized spinning the input shaft.