5th gear mystery?

SleeperSentra · 04-08-2004, 11:04 AM

Ok guys I need some advice.

I have a JDM motor with a LSD box, now some time back (roughly 6 months or so) I got the LSD and was crusing around town. Now I felt idle and decided to work the gears albeit I wasn't driving at more than 50mph or so. Now I shifted from 4th to 5th and before my hand could release the shifter and reach back to the steering wheel, the shifter pops out of 5th. So I assume I must have not engaged it fully and did it again, and got the same result. Well I tried a few more times with the same response, so I'm thinking yeh it's the typical 5th gear problem that other nissan's suffer from.

Well fast forward to yesterday, I had just done some work and the car, installed a Fidanza Flywheel and Clutchmasters Stage 1 kit. Now I've been breaking it in since monday and just felt curious again and went for a long drive to help get the miles on. Now I shift to 5th, expecting the same pop out to happen but it doesn't, so I wait and wait and the cars still driving in 5th gear. Well I drove about a total of 30 miles that night and half off it was in 5th gear, albeit due to me breaking in the new clutch and flywheel I never drove faster than 50mph the entire time.

So now I'm confused...what would have caused it to pop out with my old setup versus this new setup??? Is it that the old clutch and/or flywheel just wasn't able to hold it at that time???

Thanks in advance for your help

94sentraSER · 04-08-2004, 11:16 PM

thats strange sleeper....you describe my very 1st experience with 5th gear popout......i'm not sure why its not popping out right now... it kinda happened to me intermittent at 1st but as time went on, it started to pop out more and more....eventually it didn't stay...if i ever wanna use my 5th gear, i have to force it in while driving like 80-90 mph....and even then it gets tiresome holding it for a long time.....

SleeperSentra · 04-09-2004, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94sentraSER

thats strange sleeper....you describe my very 1st experience with 5th gear popout......i'm not sure why its not popping out right now... it kinda happened to me intermittent at 1st but as time went on, it started to pop out more and more....eventually it didn't stay...if i ever wanna use my 5th gear, i have to force it in while driving like 80-90 mph....and even then it gets tiresome holding it for a long time.....

So basically you're telling me that I'm just starting to get screwed

. I hope that's not the case

.

What I regret now is not having tried putting it back in 5th after my initial drive out and found that curious little occurence, maybe I did indeed just do something wrong at the time, who knows...but I doubt it, as I tried going into 5th multiple times and it popped out each time without delay.

Are there any other signs of 5th gear pop out that I can look for? And if it isn't that, I'd really like to know what might have caused such a phenomenon?

Thanks for your advice.

94sentraSER · 04-10-2004, 12:39 AM

Well lots of people on the forum are kinda divided regarding WHY this crap happens to our trannies....But to answer your ??? yes!!! definitely the 1st signs of 5th gear pop-outtage....some say by leaning your hand on the shifter in 5th yadda yadda yadda....but logic will say that all other gears should do the same NO?
anyhow i guess it has something to do with the shift fork, maybe the gear itself i dunno good luck trying to find the Lochness monster, or bigfoot.....

94sentraSER · 04-10-2004, 12:41 AM

by the way im running the exact same setup as you.....Fidanza flywheel, CM stage 1....i really like the CM clutch.....it grips very nicely....

Peter · 04-10-2004, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SleeperSentra

So basically you're telling me that I'm just starting to get screwed

. I hope that's not the case

.

What I regret now is not having tried putting it back in 5th after my initial drive out and found that curious little occurence, maybe I did indeed just do something wrong at the time, who knows...but I doubt it, as I tried going into 5th multiple times and it popped out each time without delay.

Are there any other signs of 5th gear pop out that I can look for? And if it isn't that, I'd really like to know what might have caused such a phenomenon?

Thanks for your advice.

Far as I know, 5th gear popout is a combination of the
synchro being worn, and something with the actual gear.

To fix 5th gear popout, there's a list of parts on se-r.net.

It's about 220-250 worth of parts, and can be done *fairly*
easily. I'm going to do my own in the next couple of months
on the '92 tranny in my '94.

Peter

Jaketips42 · 04-11-2004, 02:35 AM

don't forget the shift fork. NX on 3rd tranny <-------- Just don't hold it in if it wants to pop out. When I drained my tranny...pretty metal flakes came out.

SleeperSentra · 04-11-2004, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94sentraSER

Well lots of people on the forum are kinda divided regarding WHY this crap happens to our trannies....But to answer your ??? yes!!! definitely the 1st signs of 5th gear pop-outtage....some say by leaning your hand on the shifter in 5th yadda yadda yadda....but logic will say that all other gears should do the same NO?
anyhow i guess it has something to do with the shift fork, maybe the gear itself i dunno good luck trying to find the Lochness monster, or bigfoot.....

Well everyones got an opinion on everything

. Thanks for the advice though, cause of all the gearheads and professionals I've consulted this is the only place that I've been able to get even close to an answer.

I don't think I'll look for nessie thou

, I'll let her find me, been driving a lot since me last post and been putting her in 5th and it bites and holds till "I" say when, so I'll call it a act of god and move on for now.

Thanks a million...

SleeperSentra · 04-11-2004, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 94sentraSER

by the way im running the exact same setup as you.....Fidanza flywheel, CM stage 1....i really like the CM clutch.....it grips very nicely....

I was gonna go with a ACT kit, but this local gearhead told me about the CM kit, was skeptical at first but once I started driving it I was a convert immediately, not to mention the soft pedal feel (it's even softer than my stock setup did. Even thou I'm still in the breaking in stage I feel the bite and can't wait to test it out...I'm gonna give it about 300 miles and then squeeze on it

....BTW what's the unofficial break in period on the CM stage 1?

SleeperSentra · 04-11-2004, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peter

Far as I know, 5th gear popout is a combination of the
synchro being worn, and something with the actual gear.

To fix 5th gear popout, there's a list of parts on se-r.net.

It's about 220-250 worth of parts, and can be done *fairly*
easily. I'm going to do my own in the next couple of months
on the '92 tranny in my '94.

Peter

Thanks for the info, as I too did the research when this pop-out first happened to me. Call me lucky or unlucky that I was too broke to get the kit at the time, so I wasn't able to get and install when I was putting in my new setup.

So I'll see how it goes, and if it should happen again, then I'll have no choice but to get the kit and fix it once and for all.

SleeperSentra · 04-11-2004, 05:11 PM

Ok...So it's sunday, so what better to do that go for a sunday drive.

Well that's what I did, and the problem or should I say mystery problem popped up again but what I noticed was that each time it occurred (did it twice). Was when my speed fell to below 35mph or so (I was told not to geardown while breaking in the new clutch). So my next question is, could this be that below a certain speed, does the 5th gear syncro pop's the gear out, in otherwords telling you you going too slow for this gear??? It was a 40+ mile drive out so for it to only happen twice seem's not so bad now considering, again, I drove most of the distance in 5th to test it out.