Trouble getting into 1st gear with Manual Transmission when hot
 

I was at Buttonwillow raceway last weekend and I noticed that after every session it was becoming more and more difficult to get my car into first gear. This is not the first time that I have noticed this. I had the same problem when I took the car to a drag strip where I pulled 6 runs. After each drag run it became increasingly more difficult to get the car to go into first gear. When I say difficult I don't mean that I was trying to force it into gear or getting any grinding noise. Basically the shifter would no longer slip into gear as usual or other times it would try to slip in but then it would feel like it didn't want to go in so I would back off.

After letting the car cool down some more it would eventually slip in, but it would feel like the gear was slipping in just barely. Kind of like when you shift from one gear to another without using the clutch. Problem occurs only with first and reverse, the rest of the gears don't give me any problems. After letting the car cool down completely overnight the issue would go away, and under normal city and highway driving the problem doesn't arise.

I'm supercharged with the Sprintex kit, but I'm only making about 221 whp on 93 octane. When driving normally or racing on the track the clutch doesn't slip at all and shifting thru 2nd-6th gear is great, even when hot.

What do you guys think? Do I need a transmission cooler, perhaps I should upgrade my cluthc & flywheel or is it time to change the transmission fluid again? I have a little under 30K miles on the car. I still have the stock clutch and flywheel and I replaced the oem transmission oil with Motul Gear Oil 300 SAE 75W90 about 8K miles and 4 track days ago.

I just woke up so this might be out to lunch. Check your reverse lockout position. It might need to be adjusted slightly.

Oh, I'd start by changing the fluid and bleeding the hydrolytic clutch system .....;)


humfrz

Thank you!

I'll try that first. It's easy to forget that sometimes the most obvious answer is the one that gets overlooked most.