The t56 I just picked up for a swap has a strong spring tension from the 1-2 gate to the 3-4 gate, however the spring tension from 5-6 to 3-4 is very weak (in fact it will "stay" in the 5-6 gate instead of recentering into the 3-4 gate).

Is that normal for a T56?

 

I think you're saying that if you have the shifter in neutral, and push it left, it will spring back to center. Then you put it back in neutral and push it right and it sticks there. On my car, with both the stock and the Pro 5.0 shifter, it will spring back to center from both the 1/2 area and 5/6 area. The Pro 5.0 has noticably more spring to it, though.

 

Yes, that's what I mean. With the shifter completely in neutral, and if you push it to the left (1-2 gate) it has a strong spring back to neutral. But if you push it to the 5-6 gate, it hands there and needs a bit of help to make it back to center neutral.

It is supposedly a factory hurst shifter, but I can't tell. It's not marked, and there is no travel stops.

I am considering whether I need to swap the tranny for another one at the dismantling yard I got it from? One of the yard guys says he drove it and it shifted fine, and the trans does seem to pick up all six plus reverse just fine.

 

You might just want to get a Pro 5.0 and see if its a problem with the shifter. You could even try to see if anyone you know has a stock shifter sitting around that you could borrow/buy just to see if that's the problem. That's a lot cheaper/easier than a new trans.

 

at this point, the tranny isn't in yet, and if it's 'defective' then swapping it with another one at the salvage yard will cost me nothing. I just bought this one saturday.

Unfortunately..I don't know anyone in the area that has a 4th generation camaro let alone a 6speed.

Does the shifter control "spring" return to neutral, or the trans, or both? Or put another way, if the shifter wasn't bolted to the trans, would the arm try to center?

 

I pulled the shifter off, and it seems that the shifter itself does indeed control the "spring back to center" - not the tranny.

The tranny easily moves by hand from the 1-2 to 3-4 to 5-6 and back, and the shifter when manipulated by hand off the tranny, has a noticably weaker spring to center from the right side positions (5-6). so trans is fine, it's all in the shifter.

thanks everyone!