[Saleen355]

Suddenly a major issue came up that I cannot get the shifter into 1st or 2nd like it’s locked out or I’m just pushing the shifter against a wall.

Prior to this the transmission has shifted beautifully. Ive alway been a smooth shifter. And virtually never grinded or heard grinding in the gears. Never heard or felt anything unusual. Never slipped. Never hard to get out of gear. This pretty much happened suddenly. Three days ago I noticed it was gradually getting slightly harder to get in gear, then Friday after I got back to town from work it was practically impossible to go from N-to-1, N-to-2, 1-to-2, 3-to-2,etc and revving nor rolling help any. It’s like its either impossible to find the 1st or 2nd slot or I’m locked out. Nothing else has given me any warning or symptoms something was going out.

I’d like to diagnose this correctly, or at least narrow the cause down. From what I’ve gathered could be throw out bearing, synchros, forks, bushings or even maybe needs new clutch and transmission fluid… is anyone familiar with this problem?

Follow up: I discovered I can “find” 1st and 2nd if I put the shifter in reverse first. It’s almost like the reverse lockout spring is resting too far out and interfering with the 1st and 2nd gates. But I’m not sure if it even works that way.

I’m now leaning is this because of bent forks or would an aftermarket shifter fix this?

 

[crjackson]

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[Cobrajet67]

Suddenly a major issue came up that I cannot get the shifter into 1st or 2nd like it’s locked out or I’m just pushing the shifter against a wall.

Prior to this the transmission has shifted beautifully. Ive alway been a smooth shifter. And virtually never grinded or heard grinding in the gears. Never heard or felt anything unusual. Never slipped. Never hard to get out of gear. This pretty much happened suddenly. Three days ago I noticed it was gradually getting slightly harder to get in gear, then Friday after I got back to town from work it was practically impossible to go from N-to-1, N-to-2, 1-to-2, 3-to-2,etc and revving nor rolling help any. It’s like its either impossible to find the 1st or 2nd slot or I’m locked out. Nothing else has given me any warning or symptoms something was going out.

I’d like to diagnose this correctly, or at least narrow the cause down. From what I’ve gathered could be throw out bearing, synchros, forks, bushings or even maybe needs new clutch and transmission fluid… is anyone familiar with this problem?

Follow up: I discovered I can “find” 1st and 2nd if I put the shifter in reverse first. It’s almost like the reverse lockout spring is resting too far out and interfering with the 1st and 2nd gates. But I’m not sure if it even works that way.

I’m now leaning is this because of bent forks or would an aftermarket shifter fix this?

Idk if it could be a shifter problem but it's worth taking a look to see if something isn't broken. Since this only happens with 1st or 2nd gear my guess is a bent or broken shift fork, fork pads worn/missing/broken, or a bad synchro hub. I have read that the MT82 1st/2nd shift fork and synchro hub/sleeve are known to break. It's mentioned in the class action lawsuit against Ford: Ford Mustang MT82 Lawsuit Alleges Transmissions Fail | CarComplaints.com
In any case, you'll need to open up the trans in order to find out what the exact problem is.

 

[Saleen355]

Welp it was the shifter. I drove her around a few more times. Was coming back from work, downshifted to 3rd to pass some truck going slow, revving at about 5500 RPM, I noticed my shifter just was flopping around. Heard and felt a couple clanking noises -like metal being flung off.

Had her towed back to my place. At this point I was thinking if the transmission wasn’t messed up then its screwed now. I waited until daylight next day and I discovered yes I don’t have a link any more going from my shifter to shifting shaft. Who knew the shifter was a weak link itself. Question is, is it likely I still caused internal damage somewhere?

 

[wjbertrand]

Do you still have the OEM shifter? If you have to replace it there are better options out there than OEM, specifically MGW.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Cobrajet67]

Welp it was the shifter. I drove her around a few more times. Was coming back from work, downshifted to 3rd to pass some truck going slow, revving at about 5500 RPM, I noticed my shifter just was flopping around. Heard and felt a couple clanking noises -like metal being flung off.

Had her towed back to my place. At this point I was thinking if the transmission wasn’t messed up then its screwed now. I waited until daylight next day and I discovered yes I don’t have a link any more going from my shifter to shifting shaft. Who knew the shifter was a weak link itself. Question is, is it likely I still caused internal damage somewhere?
View attachment 791657

I can't make out what you were trying to show in that pic. It doesn't haven't good detail at all and it's blurry.
I'm not an expert on this but I wouldn't think that you have any kind of significant internal damage if any damage at all. It seems to me that your shifter linkage just broke so perhaps your synchros might have taken a bit of a beating from trying to get it into gear while this issue was ongoing.

 

[Saleen355]

Still trying to figure this out two weeks later. Since my broken shifter link left me on the side of the road, my linkage was still intact, but just was missing the pin that mates to the selector shaft. So replaced that, got a secondhand Barton shifter. It got me back on the road. I was happy, however the tricky 1st and 2nd gear still persists.

Currently I’m experimenting with a 70% RP Synchromax, 30% RP 75W-90 MTF mixture to see if this will make a difference. This only made 3-4, and 4-5 smoother but has not made any noticeable difference for 1,2 and 3.

My only remedy at this point is shifting into 2nd prior to shifting into 1st at a stop. With low speed turns, 2nd wants rev/speed matching. 2nd has no problem sliding in at 7mph which makes sense since that’s the match.

No one wants to believe their transmission internals are going out, which only leaves the clutch assembly to blame before assuming the worst. When I did drain my old MTF, it looked good. No metal flakes at all, just a little brass glitter but not overwhelming.

My clutch does have a chatter in neutral, and goes away when the pedal is pressed in. Only experienced I have had with a bad clutch is slipping. I don’t have any slippage, so what other symptoms would a bad clutch/throw out bearing present

 

[Siber Express]

A bad/worn clutch can not release completely thus letting the front half spin and not going into lower gears while it still has enough friction pad left to not slip.

 

[Saleen355]

Any recommendations on a good clutch? I prefer comfort rather than the stiff performance feel, but not at the sacrifice of quality and still would like to get on it every now and then.

 

[ONEZ ST]

Welcome to the forums. Would you mind posting what year and model you have. I can assume it is a 2011 to 2014 V6 based on the sub forum you posted in but really hate to rely on assumptions, especially mine.

How many miles are on the clutch?

 

[Saleen355]

Following up on the synchromax fluid change, it actually has made a significant improvement. It took about 300 miles to really work it’s way in. I wasn’t sure if it would do anything at all, but hey I was surprised. While it hasn’t completely eradicated my problem, it reduced fighting the shifter by 90% and made it 50% easier to slip in gear.

ONEZ ST, yes it’s a 2012 v6. Not sure if the clutch has been replaced. I’m assuming not so prob the life of the car at 67K.