I know this is a Z forum but i thought u guys might be able to give me more info..

My 04 g35 6spd. 90k miles is running great.
However, It is EXTREMELY hard to shift into 1, 2, and 3rd gear... At ALL rpms! it feels like the gate is just closed and I cant get it to go in at and RPM.

Is my tranny screwed??? It had a new clutch put in last year.. so I doubt its that..
Is it the synchos??

Also would it be cheaper to just have the tranny rebuilt or to replace it??
If i rebuild it, will the same issue return later on?

Please help

 

If the synchros were bad, it would be grinding as it went into gear. For your symptom, I'd be looking at the clutch to see if it's dragging when the pedal is all the way down. It could also be a bad pilot bearing in the back of the flywheel that's trying to keep the transmission input shaft turning at engine speed even when the clutch is disengaged.

 

so if the car is hard to put in gear it would be a clutch problem?? I thought it would def be a synchro issue?

 

If you're having a hard time getting it into gear, it means that the synchro is having a hard time synchronizing the gear. It's not a good idea to force it, as that will eventually damage the synchro.

It sounds like your synchros are still working. Once they go, the dragging clutch will just make the gears grind as you shift.

A new clutch is no guarantee that's it's not dragging, since there are several ways something could have been improperly installed, mis-adjusted, or damaged during the installation.

 

Agree. Clutch vs transmission may be difficult to diagnose. If the clutch is NOT completely disengaged, it will be difficult to shift.

 

Here's how I came to know that a dragging clutch will make a transmission hard to shift.

When I was in high school, I drove a '58 Ford school bus. The engine had been replaced over the summer, and about a week after I got the bus the gears started getting increasingly harder to shift.

When I got home, I got under the bus to see what was going on. I found the bolts holding the bell housing to the engine were coming loose. That let the transmission move back a little, and the clutch fork couldn't move the diaphragm spring in the pressure plate enough to completely disengage the clutch.

I tightened the bolts, and the transmission went back to shifting easily.

I never told the bus maintenance people about doing that, because I was scared they'd take the bus route away from me for working on the bus. I also never told them that a friend and I had swapped out the intake manifold and governor-controlled (35mph) 2-barrel carburetor for a 4-barrel setup with no governor. I drove it for two days like that, then we changed it back. Have you ever seen a school bus burn rubber?

 

the strange thing is i can down shift into any gear with no problem. It goes it smoothly.. its only when im starting from a dead stop is when i cant engage the gears...