I swear everyone I know that has a camaro that is a stick. Everytime u put it in reverse it grinds even if clutch is all the way in. I know like about 6 or 7 friends who have standards that are camaros and all of them grind when putting it in reverse.

 

My Z28 did that
I put it into 5th gear first, then into reverse, it doesnt grind that way.
Then I got my clutch adjusted etc, and it doesnt grind anymore...

 

What is happening is the transmission input-shaft is still spinning when the clutch is depressed. Check the pilot bearing, throwout bearing and transmission bellhousing alignment.

 

Thats perfectly normal for a T5 manual transmission. Reverse is not synchronized, meaning there is nothing to line the gears up before they slide together, like there is on the other 5 gears. To stop it from grinding, you put it into another gear first, then into reverse. Some people use first, some use fifth, it doesnt matter. Push in the clutch, put the trans in first/fifth, then put the trans in reverse without letting off the clutch. No more grinding...

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1991 Camaro Z28
5.7L 5-Speed (originally 305)
317 RWHP, 418 RWTQ
13.23 @ 107.62 MPH (2.10 60')
Southern California
Member: SoCal 3rd Gen F-Bodies
Member: SoCal F-Bodies
-=ICON Motorsports=-

 

My tranny does that, I haven't yet tried going into another gear first, but I found that if I shift into reverse, really slowly and carefully (like over 5-10 seconds) then it doesn't grind or it grinds very little. It kind of sucks having to do that so I'll try going to another gear first.

 

Of course all GM T-5s do that; and so do all T-5s in any other kind of car, and almost all other manual transmissions in all kinds of cars and trucks for that matter. Like Kevin said, Reverse has no synchronizer.

People who know how to drive a stick know that you're supposed to put it in one of the synchronized forward gears before you shift it into reverse. I learned that on an old Chevrolet 3-speed (the kind that came in 50s model cars), which didn't have a synchro on 1st either. If you were sitting somewhere with the engine idling and the clutch out in one of those, and you just put the clutch in and tried to stick it in 1st, it would grind 1st just like reverse in a T-5 does. You had to put it in 2nd or 3rd before you tried to put it in 1st or reverse.

The only other way to keep it from grinding is to push in the clutch and wait for a few seconds, usally close to 5, for all the gears inside the trans to spin down and come to rest. And lik Lars hinted at, that won't even work if your clutch doesn't disengage fully.

Grinding gears that way has gotta be as good an indicator of someone who doesn't know how to drive a stick as stalling it trying to take off from a stop, or other stupid stick-shift screw-up like that

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"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports

 

FYI, I believe the reverse on the T56 is synchronized.

 

I drive a ford 4x4 almost everyday and it grinds if it's put in reverse too fast, I usually wait a few seconds after the clutch is depressed and it doesn't do it, so it's not a GM thing. A dry pilot bearing will also contribute to this problem.