Suddenly Hard 1st to 2nd gear T5 Shifting

[85GTMan]

Driving My GT the other day shifting into 2nd gear became very stiff, no grinding or rattling just incredibly stiff & just as difficult to get back into 1st also very stiff to get it into neutral. The car runs fine & the trans pulls fine. sitting in the driveway with the car off once you can get it to neutral (it almost takes two hands) shifting from 3rd & ups seems fine & also reverse. the car has been running great & I have several thousand miles on a new clutch set, flywheel & clutch cable. so there's no issues there. literally from one stop light to the next it went & I wasn't flogging it, just normal driving. I pulled the shifter out in hopes it was binding somehow but it moves as it should. Any ideas of what could have gone wrong? thanks

[grabbergreen84]

Make sure the clutch is releasing all the way. What are you using for a cable and quadrant? Might've stretched a little.

Make sure the transmission is not filled with gear oil, that'll make them hard to shift when they're cold.

[JACook]

Check to see if it's stiff with the engine not running. You may have fractured the 1-2 synchronizer hub.
Unfortunately, that hub is considered part of the mainshaft. Been there, broke that...

[1FAST85]

Make sure the transmission is not filled with gear oil, that'll make them hard to shift when they're cold.

+1

I live in PA, and in my old '90 GT I had similar issues (when the weather got cold), come to find out previous owner swapped out the fluid with gear oil. I canged it back and it took care of the problem.

Best of luck,
-Chris

[Sinister]

I also agree with checking the fluid, I use Mobil 1 ATF ( around 8 dollar a quart ).

[85GTMan]

It is just as stiff to shift with the engine off, once you find neutral the rest of the gears are fine but 1st & 2nd are extremely stiff. I checked the fluid (hoping it was low or something simple) its full with the correct ATF fluid in it. I guess I'll have to drop it & see whats up, but that'll have to wait till spring. since its down for a good while I may just blow it apart & do a mini resto on the interior & other nagging things.

[v8only]

Broken jammed shift keys and broken shift fork could be an issue, since it's doing it with engine off, problem is trans

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