I have been on this site a while but this is my first posting. I bought a 98 ss with 6speed manual about a year ago. I don't drive it much but when I do there are times I seem to have trouble getting 2nd and ocasonally 4th gear as well. I'm not sure if i'm to fast in the rpm's for the gears at time I don't really race my cars or anything and have driven normal 5speeds in the past without this type of trouble. So I was wondering if anyone may know if this is a common problem with these cars or if mine is unique in this manner. The car has 138,000 miles close to 139,000 now and it was always adult driven by a 50 year old school teacher if memory serves me and the reason for the high milage was it was always drive on the highway. Again any advice on this would truely be appreciated. Thanks.

 

I don't know of any "common" problem associated with the T56, they seem to be pretty bulletproof.

Try posting this in the Drivetrain tech section and see what they say.

 

No problems shifting from stop to reverse?
It's either synchros, or clutch is not disengaging completely. If no problems with reverse, I vote for synchros. What was the last time it had tranny fluid change?

 

Is the "skip shift" feature still active?

 

If it's not a skip shift problem and you mean it just doesn't want to go into the gear I would guess the syncros are worn. My old T56 was hard to get into second. No grinding or anything. When pulled into second it just didn't want to go into gear. It got better once it was warm but would still balk sometimes. When I took it apart the syncro was obviously worn and even the teeth on the gear that the syncro engages looked worn. I didn't fix the trans so I don't know for sure if a new syncro would have fixed it but I didn't see any other problems with second gear except the syncro and the clutch teeth on the gear.

 

I wanted to thank everybody for there help. I don't have any problems getting reverse and i'm not certain the last time the gear oil was changed on this car as I do not drive it much and it does not require much maitnence as a result. But thanks again.

 

Also not sure if the skip shift is on I didn't even know that you could turn that feature on or off I assumed it was a style type trans that was the way it was built. So I would not be sure if it is on or not. Thanks again.

 

To everyone who posted here. Thanks for the help I have a skip shift eleminator and the car drives like a dream now thanks again. .