Hard To Shift Into 1st Gear

[paddy1998]

I've had this 92 4X4 5 speed manual for about 6 weeks. I changed all the fluids, including putting GM Synchromesh the gearbox. I also installed a Hurst shifter.

Recently, it occasionally won't shift into 1st gear from a stop. However, if I move the stick all the way to the right and briefly shift into 5th or reverse and then back it will then fall into first gear without any problem.

There are no other shifting problems whatsoever.

Thoughts?

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

Most likely air in the line. Can also be the flange/s oonthe master cylinder is are broke. I've also encountered the firewall having cracked and flexing enough to prevent full disengagement of the clutch.

 

[RonD]

+1 ^^^



Transmission gears spin at wheel speed, so when stopped the drive gears in transmission are also stopped, 0 RPMs, there is no disconnect between wheels, axle, drive shaft and transmissions output shaft that has the drive gears

Engine at idle is say 700RPMs

In Neutral clutch pedal up, the clutch disc and transmission input shaft are also at 700rpm
When you push the clutch pedal down the clutch disc MUST BE full separated from flywheel and pressure plate which always spin at engine RPMs

When clutch disc and input shaft slow down to 0 RPMs, THEN you can shift into a gear
If there is ANY rubbing of the clutch disc on flywheel or pressure plate then disc can't slow down to 0 RPMs
If there is ANY AIR in a hydraulic clutch system, then the Slave cylinder can't pull the pressure plate back far enough so there is rubbing, and hard to get into gear

There are synchro-mesh gears for each gear, they help slow down the disc and input shaft as you push shifter arm into a gear
lower gears, like 1 and 2 are high ratio so takes more effort to slow down a RUBBING disc
5th is a low ratio gear so easier to use to slow down the disc and get it to 0 RPMs, i.e. it goes into 5th gear
Once disc is at 0rpms(in gear) you can then shift into any other gear

While driving you are having the same issue BUT won't notice it as much because the synchros will Match RPMs better between engine RPMs and spinning rear wheel RPMs

 

[scotts90ranger]

Yeah, that, it's fairly common to be difficult to get into first stopped on these, in my '97 it does that pretty good and I'll usually just pull it toward second gear briefly (doesn't usually go into that either...) to get the synchro's working some which is enough to get it into first

 

[superj]

i go down towards second also

 

[paddy1998]

Hey, thanks for all the replies and ideas. It turned out to be something unrelated to the clutch.

Something I didn't put in my original post (because I didn't realize it at the time) was that when it wouldn't go into first gear it felt like the force on the stick was pushing against more than just the shift fork mechanism; it felt like it was putting force on the entire gearbox case.

And a few days ago I had the following conversation with a friend who has a firm grasp of the obvious:

Friend: "Didn't you just put a Hurst shifter in there a few weeks ago?"
Me: "Yes."
Friend: "Did you go back and retorque the bolts that hold it onto the tower?"
Me: "No."
Friend: "Well you know you're supposed to do that."
Me: "Yeah, I think I read something about that."
Friend:

Sooooooo, I retorqued those bolts and everything has been just dandy. Shifts better than ever.

And while it's a little spendy, I cannot reccomend that Hurst shifter enough!