I recently made a thread thinking that my new shifter was causing me to not be able to get into reverse, but now I'm really thinking it's something else but I'm not sure what.

The Problem:
The car will not shift into reverse while the vehicle (93 Z28) is started. Sometimes you can force it into reverse, but it isn't pretty and often makes a grinding sound while trying to force you out of reverse. This all started occurring after installing a new clutch. The other gears seem to be slightly hard to get into but I'm not sure if that is because of the MGW shifter that was installed.

The Symptoms:
- It is impossible to get the car into reverse without causing some kind of grinding or having to use excessive force. However,
- if you turn on the vehicle, then shift into 5th, then turn off the vehicle, reverse seems to "reappear" and you can shift into reverse as long as the vehicle is off.
- Other gears seem slightly hard to get into, but I'm not sure if that's because of the MGW shifter or not.
- The plastic strap that comes on a new slave cylinder, that holds the plastic cap on the end of the slave rod to help during installation, is still intact. From my understanding, this strap should break when the slave rod fully extends.


What was changed during the clutch swap:
- Pressure Plate (Ram)
- Clutch Disk (Ram)
- Slave Cylinder (Aftermarket)
- Master Cylinder (Aftermarket, the slave and master were purchased and installed separately)
- Shifter (MGW)

Some people were suggesting to bleed the hydraulics, so I did that today and that's when I noticed the slave strap had not broken. It also seemed to take a really, really long time to bleed the clutch. I was probably "pumping the slave rod" for about 10 minutes before all the bubbles seemed to disappear but the problem continued.

So, where do I begin?

 

If the slave strap has not broken then your clutch still isn't bled right, reverse is the furthest gear away and usually will grind or be hard to get into if the master/slave isn't bled fully. I would continue to bleed the heck out of it, sometimes they can be a bugger.

 

I bled it today and there seemed to be more bubbles which makes me think my system may be allowing air in somewhere. But wouldn't this also cause fluid to leak?

I seemed to get all the air out of the system. But I forgot to hook up the reverse lockout solenoid so I obviously can't get into reverse at all. I'll have to check it out once the sun comes back around.

 

The strap on the slave was still not breaking, so I replaced the slave. There is still no difference.

The slave strap is not breaking and there aren't any air bubbles coming up when i attempt to bleed the system.

 

If need be break the strap yourself, is the master adjustable??

 

If the strap isn't breaking, the rod isn't extending enough. The rod should easily be able to snap the strap. The master isn't adjustable.

I'm thinking of replacing the master and slave with a prebled unit from GM.

 

But since I'm ordering a new slave/master anyway, I might as well try breaking the strap before I do that.

 

AFAIK, reverse is locked out when the ignition is off. Not that this solves your problems, but at least you have 1 less

 

You're right. I need to edit the post some.

 

What about fluid level. I have not dealt with it on the t56 but I have seen on several other trannys where reverse is a bitch with a low fluid level. .02 may be worth a look.

 

I just changed the transmission fluid. And it wouldn't explain why the slave strap isn't breaking either.

Good suggestion though.

 

I had a similar problem that was caused by the MC. Somehow it was leaking air in but not leaking fluid out.... Maybe I just never found the leak but you might wanna check that out FWIW

 

How did you fix it? New master?