Ive had some major problems with my T56. I went to a party yesterday, went to turn around in someones driveway, to find out it wont go into reverse, and yes my reverse lock-out soleniod works. It wants to go in reverse, but just grinds. Ive tried it serveral times before I turned the car off, tried putting in reverse, started it, let out the clutch, and it just grinded again. On the way home, it grinded-popped out of second 3 or 4 times, very spontanious. So I pulled the tranny today, removed the tailshaft, so see that the 6th gear on the mainshaft has little parts of the teeth missing in the middle of the teeth (about 5 teeth total out of 40 or so) the reverse gear looks to be okay, as well as the idler gear, The syncro looks destroyed, I pulled out both magnets on the bottom of the case, theres some bronze and steel glitter. There was a piece of metal on there that was about 1/8 inch wide and 1/4 long. There was also part of a ring, there was about half of it left on the magent, Im thinking its a blocker ring, but im not sure. Rockland gear is about 1 hour away, so parts arent a problem, I just dont have the 2200 bucks for them to rebuild it, so I wanna so it to save myself of dough. So, I need all the help I can possibly get at this point. The thing thats getting me, is, if the sycro is destroyed, shouldnt it go in reverse when i turned the car off and put it in reverse?

The bronze friction ring on reverse, just helps synchronize the speeds of engagement slider and gear, to ease the shift. If the engagement teeth on the slider are worn away, and/or the springs/keys in the slider/synchro are broken, then the slider won't stay engaged with the gear and it will pop out.

The missing teeth on the 6th gear may not be a concern, but it's something to check.

Doing a DIY rebuild isn't hard, but it takes patience to triple-check everything and setup the proper clearances. There are a few semi-speciallized tools that make the job alot easier, if not possible as well.. There's dozens of rebuild articles online if you search them out, most have detailed pictures.. If you run into anything odd after starting the rebuild, just give us a shout here on the forums..

IMHO, with your motor, you should consider doing a complete teardown to inspect everything, and put back the upgraded parts in as much as you can afford.. (Think of them as "free" since you're saving $$ doing a DIY... ;-) )

im going to have to completly rip it down. I noticed that the race the the bearing at the end of the countershaft spun in the tailhousing (the race right above the idler gear) so I know I have to get a new tailhousing, 6th gear, and the reverse syncro and blocker rings. and then when I turn the output shaft still spins, you can hear something still fudged up. Im going to try to take some pics after work today, hopefully that would help

FWIW, 3 of the races in the T56 are not press-fit, they are removable to allow shims to be added to set the end-play/pre-load. The one you mention is one of those, used to set the extension shaft end-play.

Pics will help alot..

oh, is it sopposed to spin in the tailshaft housing? Plus, what would make it come out a little bit, enough for it to hit the idler gear?

Yes. It would actually pop right out if the idler wasn't in the way (It probably stuck to the extensionshaft bearing when you pull the tail housing off, and came out a little).. You'll have to remove the idler and it eventually if you need to change the extensionshaft end-play after the rebuild.