Hard Shifting C5

[RickG]

Just looking for a little advice before going back to the dealer for potentially expensive transmission service. My 98 C5 6-speed has been shifting kind of hard going from 2nd to 1st when coming to a stop and "crunching or grinding" a little bit when going from 5th to 6th in normal driving as if the clutch was not fully engaged. The 5th to 6th crunch only just recently happend and does not occur on a regular basis, but sporadically.

At first I thought I might not be fully engaging the clutch but discovered that was not the case. Basically it feels like the tranny might be out of sync somehow or the clutch is not engaging correctly.

In the past the car has popped out of gear once or twice when taking off from a stop, this is rare and I attributed this to a possibly weak or incomplete shift on my part, however, now I'm not so sure. The car has a little over 50K miles and has never been driven hard.

I basically trust the dealer where the car is serviced, but fore-warned is for-armed. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Rick

[BlackNBlue95]

poping out of gear is usually caused by the syncro's being worn out, which would me the trans needs to be rebuilt.. the other idea could be but I doubt is the shift linkage is not adjuested correctly.

The syncros could be worn out from power shifting a bit.

[c4c5specialist]

Hi there,
I would first try a shifter adjustment.
This is the first step in a hard/grinding shift, or popping out on c5.
If you reference the attached link, this will show you of what I speak of.
Also, I would suggest draining the fluid, which will be Dexron 3, and check to see if you have any metal particles, in the fluid.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/sho...php?photo=2069
Allthebest, c4c5

[RickG]

I appreciate the advice on the problem. I'll give the shifter adjustment a try as well as checking the fluid. Hopefully it is something minor. With the way the car has been driven, the tranny should not be damaged from power shifting or similar things, however, I am the second owner and can't really say how it was driven prior to me getting it. I do know that from 21K miles to present, it's been driven pretty easy. The pop out has only occured a couple of times and hasn't happend recently.

Anyway, I appreciate your help, especially the pics on adjusting the shifter.

Thanks,

Rick

[paymaster]

My 97 developed the same set of symptoms you mentioned. (at about 98,000 miles) I had the transmission lube and the clutch fluid changed and all is well again. No more popping out of 1st and the 1st to 2nd and 5th to 6th shifts are very smooth now.

[sothpaw]

C4/C5,

I test drove a C5 several months back, and I could not shift fast from 1 to 2 to save my life.
Every time, the shifter would physically pop out of 2nd. This was a 99 hard top w/ 28 k mi.
I could shift 1 to 2 slowly, just not fast like in a drag race.

The dealership said this was normal. I never bought it.

[c4c5specialist]

Originally posted by sothpaw
C4/C5,

I test drove a C5 several months back, and I could not shift fast from 1 to 2 to save my life.
Every time, the shifter would physically pop out of 2nd. This was a 99 hard top w/ 28 k mi.
I could shift 1 to 2 slowly, just not fast like in a drag race.

The dealership said this was normal. I never bought it.

HI there,
This is a lie. There should NEVER be a pop out, or a grind on manual Corvette, EVER.
Allthebest, c4c5

[frankb]

So when first starting up in the morrning I have trouble getting in to reverse this may be an ajustment. Wound the same ajustment work for this? It works fine in all forward gears. Thanks

[corvettecrazy]

do any of you just have trouble getting into reverse? its kinda of hard on ours.

[Gorgon]

My FRC is hard to shift into reverse as well. I'm going to look at the adjustment that C4C5 posted and see if that helps. The lever never snaps back into the center position like it should either.

Leon