86 Lxi 5 speed: Syncro Ring Replacement & Axle Fitment Issues

[ArokASE88LXi]

Ok my 86 lxi has had a clutch disaster. When it belonged to my friend we did the clutch in it approximately 20k ago. I had been having to adjust the clutch tighter (screwing adj. in/tighter) until it finally just didn't really work well. So the other day I took the tranny out & in doing so found another problem(which I'll get to later). Anyway now that the transmission is out for the clutch problem I need to address another issue. Third gear in the previous few months has been harder to get into gear and once in gear has been coming (popping) out of gear more and more. I've heard that this is commonly due to the syncro rings being worn out. If anyone has any suggestions for how to fix this i'm all ears! I've found the syncro ring kit and downloaded the manual but is there anything else I need to know about replacing the syncro rings? Is it simply replacing them or do you have to do any prep work to them or anything inside the transmission? Also lately I've had to move the shifter farther it seems to engage any given gear. The bushing on the selector is a little worn so i'll replace that but could this also be due to shift fork clearance on the selector gear being out of specification?

Anyways as i was removing the transmission the drivers side axle would not come out of the transmission. I tried a big pry bar I tried a hammer and a big 1/2" extension but it barely moved! (being a tech i've removed literally hundreds of axles) So i decided the best thing to do was to leave the axle stub in there and simply take apart the axle. Once I removed the transmission (and found the clutch friction had separated from the disc) I was able to remove the stub but only after a good 2-3 minutes of hammering on it! the retainer ring was not damaged and looked to be in good condition. Has this ever happened to any of you? Any ideas on what it could be??

Please help i'd like to get this thing back together and finally be able to drive it again.

[Dr_Snooz]

Hey man, if you learn anything useful, let me know. I'm getting set to rebuild a manual for a swap. Any tidbits of wisdom you can share are appreciated.

[fijisac]

well since ur changing the syncro gears, there is no need to tell you that if ur syncno gear go bad, u would have to double clutch to in gauge into the gear you want to shift in to or out of. For Example, 1st and second gear syncro was bad, then you would have to clutch, shift to neutral, disengage the clutch, then reengage the clutch, then shift into second and BAM, thats how you drive a car with bad syncro gears

[ArokASE88LXi]

Actually since i got into the transmission it's pretty simple to dissasemble. I would advise looking at the area that actually moves the shift forks and make sure you know how it works but it is pretty easy too only 3 pieces that come out of it and they can be reassembled while theyre out so you know how to put it back together. I believe i've found the cause of third gear bein bad the syncro is pretty worn down. If you don't know how to tell if a syncro is worn down or not it can be hard to tell; what i've been told by an old co-worker of mine is once the brass syncro starts getting closer to the gear with some pressure on it it's getting worn (i'll try to post some pictures tommorrow). Anyways the Brass syncro rings have a small silver ring around them that's kind of a spring in the selector hub. I looked at all those rings then i looked at third gears ring and it looked real shiny (Not a good thing as you know with a lot of car parts) after I dissasembled it i found that because the syncro was getting worn it didn't go as far into the selector hub so as it didn't have much of a bite in it thats why it would pop out of gear and once that started to happen every time it would pop out of gear or i would have trouble getting it into gear (grinding) that little silver spring ring (fun to say!) would grind on the selector hub, so in my case the 3rd/4th gear selector hub was getting chewed up as well as having worn out syncros.

One other thing I can say about our 5 speed transmissions is make sure you take a good look at the reverse gears as they are not syncronized and the grinding you hear when you grind reverse (None of us do that though right?) its actually grinding bigger gears not just syncros, selector hubs, or small teeth. If the idler gear shows any signs of wear (as mine does) don't hesitate to replace it and if you can the opposing gear on the output shaft. Once these start to wear they will wear the gear on the input shaft and once that happens you have to buy a whole new input shaft and i priced those somewhere around $200!!! Just mentioning this about reverse because i bought my 88 and it didnt have reverse and the input shaft gear was torn to $&%^ and my 86 now shows signs of wear leading me to believe this may be a little common for our cars. Anyways I'll keep posted of anything else i learn!! Don't be afraid to dive in i've learned tons just doing this one transmission!!

[Dr_Snooz]

Good stuff. Thanks! I'm definitely up for any picture you want to post.