Escort Manual shifting issue

[bmenzing]

My 97 Escort has a problem when shifting into or down-shifting to 3rd gear. The gears do not engage properly & tend to grind. I have to disengage the clutch & shift back into 3rd a 2nd time for the gears to mesh properly. This is an intermittant problem. Forcibly holding the shifter up in the 3rd gear position, or keeping the clutch disengaged a moment longer before shifting into 3rd helps to eliminate the problem. The problem occurs either when the car sitting idle or when on the road. No issues at all with the other gears. I've driven standard transmission auto's for 35 years and never encountered this problem - although I do remember bad throw out bearings affecting the shifting for ALL gears on cars from years past. Any ideas?

[AzTumbleweed]

Not that it will cause your problem but have you checked the fluid level in your tranny? Since it only does it in one gear I fear for the worse

[bmenzing]

Originally Posted by AzTumbleweed

Not that it will cause your problem but have you checked the fluid level in your tranny? Since it only does it in one gear I fear for the worse

I will certainly check the level - once I determine where to check it at. I'm also going to check for any clutch petal adjustments - Once again though, I would think if the clutch petal needs adjustment, I would have issues with all of the gears. Thanks for the reply.

[Davescort97]

3rd gear synchro's worn out. Double clutch it.

[AzTumbleweed]

Double clutching will probably be your best bet. If you don't know how then we can walk you through it. I'll make a post later of checking the tranny fluid. The hydraulic clutch mechanism should never normally need adjustment. On flat ground you can skip 3rd. Rev 2nd up pretty high and go straight to 4th.

[bmenzing]

Originally Posted by AzTumbleweed

Double clutching will probably be your best bet. If you don't know how then we can walk you through it. I'll make a post later of checking the tranny fluid. The hydraulic clutch mechanism should never normally need adjustment. On flat fround you can skip 3rd. Rev 2nd up pretty high and go straight to 4th.

Thanks for the reply. I drove a large dump truck years ago and am familiar with double-clutching. I'll give it a try. Unfortunately, in this situation, the car is for sale. A prospective buyer was going to buy the car but won't proceed with the buy unless I can get this repaired. The car has less then 41K on it and otherwise runs very well. 3rd gear synchro indeed sounds like a probable cause, but also sounds like an expensive repair - I'll likely just hang on to the car. Thanks again.

[bmenzing]

Originally Posted by Davescort97

3rd gear synchro's worn out. Double clutch it.

Thanks for the reply. Someone else mentioned the same thing - this car has less then 41k - seems odd that a synchro goes bad so soon, but it sure seems a likely cause.

[AzTumbleweed]

Sell it to a truck driver

Hang on to it. Will last you a long, long time

[sixleggedinsect]

Originally Posted by AzTumbleweed

Double clutching will probably be your best bet. If you don't know how then we can walk you through it. I'll make a post later of checking the tranny fluid. The hydraulic clutch mechanism should never normally need adjustment. On flat ground you can skip 3rd. Rev 2nd up pretty high and go straight to 4th.

someone told me how to double clutch a while back and it didnt make any sense to me. id love to hear your explanation.

to the OP: there are a couple threads on checking 5spd tran fluid in this forum. consider doing a search as i recall there was some good info.

anthony

[AzTumbleweed]

The idea is to get the blue gear of the next gear and the purple collar rotating at the same speed so that the dog teeth (on purple collar) can engage. (The tranny pictured is in neutral. When the purple collar, which is on splines, engages the blue gear then you are in that gear. The rest of the blue gears are 'freewheeling' and do nothing until engaged by the purple collar.)



Really good article at http://auto.howstuffworks.com/transmission3.htm

When you make a mistake while shifting and hear a horrible grinding sound, you are not hearing the sound of gear teeth mis-meshing. As you can see in these diagrams, all gear teeth are all fully meshed at all times. The grinding is the sound of the dog teeth trying unsuccessfully to engage the holes in the side of a blue gear.

[AzTumbleweed]

Here's how to check the tranny fluid. Remove speedometer drive cable from transmission (10mm bolt) and here is what you will see. The gear is the "Full" and "LOW" gage.

[bmenzing]

Originally Posted by sixleggedinsect

someone told me how to double clutch a while back and it didnt make any sense to me. id love to hear your explanation.

to the OP: there are a couple threads on checking 5spd tran fluid in this forum. consider doing a search as i recall there was some good info.

anthony

In my case regarding gears not meshing going into 3rd gear, I depress the clutch to move out of 2nd gear, move the shifter to nuetral, then depress the clutch again and shift into 3rd. Double clutching works well to avoid the problem I am having. Here is another explanation for double clutching.....

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-double-clutching.htm