I know it happens to all of us, I still want to ask.

Was accelerating hard last night, chirped second and went for third but instead hit 1st, squealed off kinds of tire and the low traction light came on. The motor, tranny and rear end sound ok....What may I have damaged? It is a cruddy feeling running a car that may or may not be damaged. Any tips would be nice, also, lets hear some missed shift horror stories!

 

you either did absolutely nothing or bent a pushrod. Use the search feature. You'll find hundreds of hits from 1998.

 

searching will show 250 pages and u would see that most common is bent push rod. if u catch it while the tires jsut start to squeal u should be ok but if u dont catch it and the rpms go too high then you could bent a push rod or even cause bottom end damage. if u are that worried pull your vavle covers off and look, its not hard to do, thats what i did when i missed 4th, but i cought it really fast

 

What would a bent rod cause? What would its symptoms be?

 

bad performance, could cause knocking noises, my friend broke one off totally and he didnt know it, besides that it sounded like a misfire, couldnt tell it was bent or anything until the misfire when it was totally broke

 

I did the same thing you did 3 times in my '99 Z. Was never any worse for the wear. If I'd jammed it all the way in and let out the clutch probably would have scattered parts... But it really just began to engage synchro's, chirped the tires - and I think the low traction light came on too. If you haven't noticed anything yet you're probably fine.

 

I was on the strip, went for 5th and hit 3rd at full throttle, the rear of the car bucked up,i hit the clutch. Result: the uni joint at the diff hit the floor, stuffed my 4.11's they whined like a bitch after that so invested in a new set of 4.10's.

 

i just did it too.

full throttle track run, end of track, top of 3rd goin for 4th.
caught 2nd


locked tires, hit limiter, and got traction light.

just had cam change, think the new rods held thier own.
no noises at all.

 

I know a guy who grenaded his engine, bent a bunch of valves and pushrods, and scarred a few pistons.

I think for the most part you would know immediately if you did any serious damage. For the little stuff like a bent pushrod you may or may not notice a decrease in power and 'ticking' sound.

The thing that could happen that may not be evident would be streatching the timing chain, the timing chain could be weakened by a missed shift like you are describing. You are probably fine.

 

dude pull the valve covers and get a set of hardened pushrods anyways its cheap insurance for stupidity from now on.and if you have stock springs you can kiss the m goodbye cause they've now lost some of their ability to depress and compress

 

i dont thinks thats true, ive seen many motor over reved like that multiple times that dont have any kind of spring troubles. hardened pushrods can stand a little more however if u over rev with them the same can happen, but the chnaces are that they will most likely brake, not bend

 

Sounds like you didn't do much if any damage to your car, but I would definitely NOT go out and put hardened pushrods in place of your stockers at this point. Right now they are the weak link in that scenario and if you over rev and they bend, they are easy to replace and not that expensive. However with hardened rods something else will be the weak link and it will fail, ie you will most likely float a valve and bend a few and trash your motor.

***buy a Pro 5.0 Shifter also, otherwise that will be a common occurance.

 

Very true.

 

Did it once in my Mustang. It blew the clutch apart. Stuck in gear all the way home.

 

I'm sorry, I just can't figure out how you guys can miss 3rd and hit 1st. I've never driven an easier/widely spaced manual transmission than the T56, sometimes I wish the box was even more closely spaced. A trick from the old gated shifter days: When you're shifting from 2nd to 3rd or 4th to 5th, grip the shifter with your palm facing towards the passenger, thumb pointing downward. This should help, although I never have to do it in my SS-- its just too damn easy. Sounds like a lot of people would be total nightmares in a car that actually has a difficult manual tranny.

 

so is it true if i say:

since my clutch is going anyway (slips a lil)
it took the grunt of the over rev?

meaning it could not over power the engine and "make" it turn faster
casue it prolly slipped real bad?

or am i totally un-knowledgeable?

i hear no un-natural sounds, cant sence a power loss, etc......

 

i would think that would be ok, if the clutch is bad u have more time to respond, u should know by now if something is going on

 

hmmm

ya, i was barely lifted and realized it.
got a lil rear hop though.
and the limiter gave me a short song.

no ticking or anything
so i hope she is ok.

thanx

 

if your wheels locked up, then most likely your clutch didnt slip any.

 

I say "Let It Eat!" I doubt that you hurt anything..