AWDPower
Well-known member
I've developed a strange transmission problem. It started about a week ago when I would occasionally miss second gear. There was no grind, just no gear. After moving the shifter a bit and trying again, all was well. Over the course of the week it started becoming more frequent. This was strange, since this has been one of the best shifting DSM transmissions I've driven, especially from 1-2. I just put me car on the road a few months ago, and hadn't missed a shift in the 12,000+ miles I already put on it. It's my daily driver right now, so I've been treating it gently. As the problem became frequent, it also started popping out of second on deceleration. The transmission has also become very noisy. It's never been quite, but now has a very pronounced gear wine, epecially as the clutch is engaged. It stopped popping out of gear, but now it will not go into secong when making a left turn. If I leave a left turn at a light, everything feels fine until I let up the clutch after the 1-2 shift, then all I get is revs. No grinding, but no drive. If I cycle the shifter to another gear then back to second, it is fine. If I go strait from a stop, second is fine. Right turn, second is fine. I tested it all day today, and it failed during every left turn. This has me stumped. I'm parking it and pulling the tranny this weekend, and I've got spares. I was wondering if anyone has had these symptons before.
On a realated note, I've got three spare trannies to chose from, all from DSMs. I believe two are 22 spline '91's, and one is a 23 spline '92. One of the 91's is a known good transmission, the other two I picked up from a Pick 'n Pull in unknown condition. The current tranny is a '92 23 spline DSM tranny. My car had been down for a long time, and I'm a bit behind on the latest tranny info. It used to be thought that the later the tranny, the stronger (center diff) and better. It seems the current thinking is that the only advantge to the later trannies is the better syncros, the center diff isn't any stronger, and the shift forks are weaker. Is that correct? What would be the best combo with what I have available? Known good '91 with the 23 spline t-case output swapped over?
Thank you,
On a realated note, I've got three spare trannies to chose from, all from DSMs. I believe two are 22 spline '91's, and one is a 23 spline '92. One of the 91's is a known good transmission, the other two I picked up from a Pick 'n Pull in unknown condition. The current tranny is a '92 23 spline DSM tranny. My car had been down for a long time, and I'm a bit behind on the latest tranny info. It used to be thought that the later the tranny, the stronger (center diff) and better. It seems the current thinking is that the only advantge to the later trannies is the better syncros, the center diff isn't any stronger, and the shift forks are weaker. Is that correct? What would be the best combo with what I have available? Known good '91 with the 23 spline t-case output swapped over?
Thank you,