Usually a synchro won't "explode", it will just get ground up and fall as pieces into the bottom of the crankcase.

humfrz

Yes, I read your OP. As you have no practical experience, I am just sharing mine.

I also get balked out of 2nd if things aren't warmed up. But I've found ways to prime the gears after a cold start. Just reverse, 20 feet or so, then 1st, then repeat if necessary. The gears get spinning and the syncros well lubed, makes the first couple shifts in the morning easier.

How many miles when you bought? Any chance a test pilot fucked it over?

Driven my car plenty of times when its below freezing out and never had an issue. Last winter my car was only at 4k miles (now its at 10k).

It definitely got smoother over time.
It definitely gets smoother as it warms up.
It definitely got smoother after I replaced fluids (last January, approx 4.8k miles).
It definitely got smoother when I added a heavy shift knob (from Anarchy Motive).

^ All things you might want to try. I also don't have a short shifter (of any kind from any brand).

This is my first manual transmission (and car in general), other than stalling the car and missing a gear when shifting in my first few miles, I didnt have any issues with my car when it was new and cold out.

Are you hesitating when you shift? I've noticed sometimes when I hesitate, it'll feel like the gears are grinding a bit. Happens to me when I'm in traffic and I go from first to neutral then back into first (<5 MPH) with some hesitation because I'm expecting traffic to freaking come to a standstill again.

I am using blox weight 1lb for shift knob, it felt much better, but sometime still hard to put in reverse and 1st gear in the cold morning though

Try this:

* Let's say you're on 3rd gear.
* Clutch pedal down.
* Pull gear out to neutral.
* Clutch pedal up.
* Jab the accelerator pedal to spin up the input shaft and all the gears attached to it. Don't keep the accelerator pedal pressed, though. Just rev it quickly and let it go. If you're still pressing down on the clutch pedal when you do this, it won't do anything to the input shaft because it won't affect the clutch and anything past it (input shaft).
* Press clutch pedal while input shaft is still spinning.
* Quickly put it into 2nd gear.

The way to think about it is that the synchros are good at slowing down the transmission side to match flywheel speed, but it's terrible at speeding up the transmission side to do the same. It shouldn't be like this, but we get what we get, so.

Throttle blipping helps going into 2nd for me. This may sound weird but I have less stubborn tranny with E85.

you know i try to stay away from any tranny :bellyroll:

i saw an episode of america's next top model and this one tranny was mocking another girls chia pet wooly mammoth like eyebrows but i was thinking bitch you shouldn't be talking you is a man, wtf

Not that kind of tranny haha..

When the car is cold this doesn't help. When I go to put it into 2nd gear it feels like there is something blocking the shifter from going into 2nd.

Did you try spinning it up higher? You have to get it spinning above the speed it would if already in gear. Don't be afraid to really rev it then disengage the clutch quickly before it spins down.

If it improves just after warming up then I don't think there's anything wrong with the trans.

If you change to another fluid like Redline MT90, it will help a little. It will do so at the expense of becoming significantly noisier. Again, this is my firsthand experience.

Switching to Motul fluid and rev matching helps a ton but ultimately you just have to let the trans warm up.

Then again im pretty convinced my trans has a bit of an attitude. Some days it will shift through everything perfectly smooth regardless of the temperature. And some days 1st and 2nd are just not having it even if its completely warmed up.

TL;DR Just take some time to learn your trans, they all have their own personalities but new trans fluid and rev matching does help.

https://youtu.be/KlS6DF3NjJE

But still can feel the clutch "dragging"...