It's probably been asked a thousand times, but why does my tranny grind whenever I put it in reverse, if I can acually get it into reverse... I am pushing the clutch, so I know it's not that...

How sure are you that your clutch is disengaging all the way?

Haha, I'm not sure.. Maitenence day is monday, so if there's anyway to fix it, now is the time..

Reverse isn't synchronized. Shift into third to stop the gears spinning, then into reverse

First, second, third, or fifth before reverse works. Just not fourth.

time for me to play dumb, why not 4th?

4th gear is direct drive through the cluster gear, so it doesn't stop everything from spinning as well as the other gears. Reverse grinding is a common fallacy on just about all manual transmissions. My old Muncie 4 speed grinds horribly bad if you try to put it straight into reverse. T5's are no different. What I do is put it in 1st and let out the clutch until it just starts to lurch forward, then push the clutch back in and shift into reverse. It goes in perfect every time doing it this way. GM supposedly left reverse unsynchronized for safety reasons. They really should've made more people aware of it though. Every Muncie I've ever rebuilt has had considerable damage to the reverse gear teeth. It's a bit of an inconvenience to have to shift into 1st before going into reverse, but it virtually eliminates the damage to the teeth. GM isn't the only one that left reverse unsynchronized though. Even imports and front wheel drive cars I've owned will grind in reverse if you don't shift into 1st and bump the clutch first.

That's what I do.

JamesC

Hey James! Long time no talk to. Haven't been on the drivetrain board much these days.

No kidding. I thought maybe you'd fallen off the earth!

JamesC

Ya, had to get the computer overhauled due to viruses. Also been busy buying more expensive stuff that I haven't even put on the car yet!

always more parts to buy

anywho, my old 2001 Acura RSX would grind if you just put it right into reverse
and my TKO600 does the same thing, i usually just stick it in third quick, no clutch bumping, then it goes right into reverse.

T56 has synchronized reverse. On my T5, I don't even bother to bump it in a fwd gear. I go neutral to third, then reverse.

Yeah, the T56 is one of the few that actually does have a synchronized reverse. Some of the newer T5's actually got it too, such as the "Z" spec, Cobra T5's. The clutch bump probably isn't really necessary in most of them, but it does work really well with my Muncie doing it that way. The last time I rebuilt it, I picked through about 5 different reverse gears I had lying around before finding one in really nice shape. I also sprung for a brand new reverse idler gear, so I do whatever I can to keep it from grinding.