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This happened while on a 2,200 mile road trip last fall. After driving all day the trans would become difficult to shift and reverse wouldn't engage at all with the engine running (but it would go through the reverse gate easily). After a few days it was happening right after a cold start. I would have to put the trans in reverse THEN start the car to back out of my hotel parking space. I figured it was an issue where the clutch wasn't fully disengaging from the engine. Ever since I got home, it's been working fine.
Not wanting to deal with that again, I've been working on changing the clutch myself the last few days and have a separate thread in this forum documenting the progress. I finally got all the old stuff out but I don't see anything obvious that would be causing my issue. I was also dealing with clutch chatter the last few years but don't see anything obvious that would cause that either. I've been running this clutch setup for the last 7-8 years.
Here are the old pressure plate, disk, fidanza friction surface, and fork.
Noticed this today. The pilot bushing is pretty chewed up. Look at the difference with those inner diameters. Tons of dust in the bore hole when I removed it. Does the trans need attention?
Can anyone tell me what a "worn" clutch fork looks like? Mine looks okay to my untrained eye but it's been there for 8 years. Only reason I'm not just buying one is because they're $230.
I took the transmission to a local gear guy and had a 10 minute conversation with him at the back of my pickup. He checked the trans and we talked about the pilot bushing, the lack of reverse after a long drive and the vibrating on decel in 3rd and 5th.
He said those input shafts are impossible to bend because they're hardened so they would break before they bend.
The lack of reverse he said was due to hydraulic fluid bleeding past the slave cylinder. I'm pretty sure the master/ slave assembly I have right now is the original from the A4 > M6 swap I did back in '07 so they're due for a change. He seemed amazed they lasted this long.
The vibrating he said was most likely driveshaft or something other than the trans.
So I ordered a new master/slave assembly from Rock Auto and a new fork from Hawks because why not. It's been in there for at least 8 years. Once those arrive I'll get things reassembled.
Regarding the vibrations -- are they where you can feel each pulse in your gut, or is at a faster, almost audible vibration? At 60 mph, if you can kind of hear it like a bassy drone, it's in the driveline. If it's more like individual pulses you feel in your gut, it's after the rear gear, so think in terms of brake rotors, bubbles in tires, bent axle shaft type stuff.
At 60 mph, the vibration will either be at ~60 hz (audible) or ~17 hz (inaudible) if that makes sense.
It's like driving on the rumble strip down the highway, just not as violent. I can hear it but I think the noise is coming from the car shaking versus the trans or the driveshaft itself.
Transmission mount looked good to me. Just got the car buttoned back up and took it for a few laps around the block. Never got over 2500 rpm or 25 mph so it's possible I'll run into vibration issues since I didn't have it balanced before installing. That's the main thing I'm dreading. Shifts *so* smooth though. Clutch was just barely starting to get a slight chatter starting from a stop in 1st but I'll drive it more tomorrow.
The most pleasant surprise: it goes into reverse easier than it ever has. Used to take some muscle on a good day but now it just glides in. Love it!
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Will not go into reverse with engine on 
