CALLING ALL TRANNY EXPERTS!!HELP

[Ericr712]

So its a 97 f350 5 speed. it grinds every gear as I shift. I figured out how not to grind it by just pulling it from 2nd into neautral and then keep pressure against it till it slides into 3rd. and so on with all gears. New master cylinder, slave cylinder, tranny fluid..rod end bushings on master cylinder to pedal are good. have plent of pressure on the pedal. When i push the clutch in it releases pressure on the clutch plate ( figured it out threw the inspection panel on flywheel area)..so after all this trouble shooting and readings i think ive come to the conclusion that the clutch wheel contiunes to spin even when clutch is engaged causeing the gears to grind. thought of that cause once im in a gear i can go back and forth from neautral to that gear with no problem. its changing gears when it grinds. Someone please HELP! thanks in advance.

[jesilvas]

So you're floating them. I'm not an expert on auto's, for sure not manuals, but maybe the synchros?

[Ericr712]

I beleive there is a syncro for everygear and i dont think all of them would be gone together at same time. Im no expert either did all my trouble shooting from on here threw other posts and googleing..finally asked a friend and he came up with the clutch disk continues to spin..

[Magnus617]

Sounds like maybe syncros to me. It's not completely impossible for all of them to worn out. Have you tried to replace the transmission fluid yet? Maybe if it's old fluid it's not allowing the synchronizers to work properly. I'm not sure about ford manual trans, but some require a friction modifier added to the trans fluid for the synchro to work right.

[madpogue]

It isn't a Ford transmission. It's made by ZF, and it REQUIRES synthetic ATF. IIRC, it's because of the material the synchros are made of. Make sure the level is up and the fluid is fresh; drain and replace if you're not certain. Some fellas have had good results from overfilling by 1/2 qt or so, by filling from the shifter.

But from your observation it sounds like you're still not getting full disengagement of the clutch. Did you replace the hydraulics as a pre-built pre-bled assembly? If not, how did you bleed the system? Also, the arm coming down from the pedal pivot down to the pushrod may not be positioned to give full travel to the pushrod. You can remove it (remove the nut and pry it off; it's pressed onto the splines of the pivot shaft) and reinstall it a few degrees "counterclockwise" of its previous position; that will make the pedal push the pushrod a little further.

[1Dieselman]

I agree with madpogue that your clutch is not completely disengaging. I would bet that the plastic pivot bushing under the dash is wore out or gone and starting to eat into the metal.

[Patrick Feeley]

With full clutch pedal movement, what's the corresponding travel of the slave cylinder ram? There is a spec for it, but I can't remember whether it's 14mm or 11mm (I'll check later when I'm home). Cheers!