Trans problem. Advice please.
 

Hey guys my 98 Formy now has 145,000 on it. The tranny has always been great. Smooth shifting as could be. Only needed to replace the master about a year or so ago. So a few days ago it starts feeling a little clunky, then hard to get into gear. Sometimes it will grind when downshifting to make a turn or such. Also sometimes it will just grind when trying to get it into first and it's super hard to get in reverse and sometimes wont go in at all. Well I did the easy stuff first and changed the fluid and tryed swapping the master again. No luck. What do you guys think? Bad slave? Bad synchros? Or just time for a a new clutch. It still pulls pretty hard. But obviously if I do a slave I will swap the clutch as well. Please help. Thanks.

The fact that it started acting up all of a sudden and its hard to get into 1st and reverse leads me to believe its a clutch release issue. Usually blockers/synchros wear out gradually, you don't have a perfectly shifting trans one day and gear clash on every shift the next day.

Sounds like it could be the slave cylinder going bad. If its bleeding off fluid through an external leak, the clutch won't fully release, causing the engagement issues that you speak of. Look at the bottom side if your trans bellhousing, between the bellhousing and oil pan there is a square hole. If there is fluid driping out from there or its all wet, you've found your problem. Mine leaked for a long time before going bad.

See what you can find out.

Must be the slave then. My tranny has always been a little wet down there. Plus like you said synchros would likely be gradual. Also when i drained the fluid it was still clean and particle free. Now when swapping the master the fluid was pretty dirty. I am sure the slave it probably all gunked up. Looks like time for a complete clutch job.

Rule of thumb is:

Happens in ALL gears, hydraulic or clutch related

One or two gears, tranny related

Those are NORMALLY the case.

reading your post, it appears that you have a slave/clutch problem, BUT....

does it grind going into ALL gears or just certain one's?

I am pretty sure it's clutch or slave related. I have had problems getting it into pretty much all of the gears at some point since the problem started a few days ago. I quit driving it and am just going to do a clutch and slave swap. Just deciding now if I'm going to do it myself or bring it somewhere. Probably just going to have it done as it will cost me about $300 more than the parts alone. Getting the time to do it right now is the biggest issue to do it myself.

Yeah, all gears, clutch/hydraulic.

If in need of a clutch, you can check out Monster Clutches pricing below through my website.
Any questions, feel free to drop a PM/email or call.
Thanks