I hope wrestling with the Mustang hasn't ruined your driving skills for good

 

got my 02 in january. has 3300 miles now...i too have an *rare* 1-2 grind. It is also relatively difficult to go to 6th than any other gear - for some reason the shifter want to hit 4 all the time rather than 6. Hitting 6th requires more arm work..or maybe that's because I've been driving 5 speeds all my life that my arm isn't conditioned to hit 6th.. =P

 

Apply constant pressure to the right while pulling the shifter down to 6th. If you do not keep the shifter "planted" as far to the right as it will go, the spring will cause you to hit the "separator" between 4th & 6th. Make sure you do NOT push stick down into the console. Although reverse would be quite difficult to engage at those speeds, it would be quite ugly if you happened to manage to do it.

 

I have 02 with 10,000 miles already

The tranny has been notch since the DAY ONE I picked up this car.
1-2 and 2-3 shifts are Notchy about 70% of the times (both when cold and hot)

However I have not experienced any GRINDS yet

I took my car to the dealer 3 times to complain about the 'notchness' but I was told by the techs that the notchness is just the characteristics of the S2000. (WTH??)
Because S2000 tranny is unique and has short throws blah blah...

Since they have officially documented my complaints about notch tranny TWO TIMES already if anything goes wrong with my tranny after the warranty expires they will take care of it (At least that's what they said)

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...ighlight=notchy

 

The first 02 that I test drove had a very notchy/grinding tranny. It was so bad that I gave up the idea of buying the car at all! Really. I test drove another a few months later (just by chance) and it was perfect! So, I bought one and it's never had any problems once it's completely warmed up. No grinds or notchiness at all.

 

I can see why people would call this transmission notchy since the feel is soooo direct. My Prelude is butter smooth but that car has an entirely different shift linkage which really cannot be compared to an S2000. Also, from reading posts on this thread not every transmission is the same, some are better or worse than others.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to drive the new Civic SI with the dash mounted shifter. Really cool. Putting the shifter on the dash and mimicking the Rally cars is very functional and looks great. That shifter was butter smooth also.

 

Something very interesting. Ever since I installed my voodoo knob about a week ago my transmission feels a lot smoother. I don't get the notchy shifts anymore once the car warms up. It truly shifts like "butter" once warmed up. Either the transmission finally broke in (4300 miles) or the knob did a little voodoo magic on the tranny

 

I think the notchy feel is due to not entering the gates perfectly. The S has very precise gates. I thought mine was notchy before until a couple tips and now have resolved most of them out. With practice of exact gate positions, and without cutting corners, you can minimize the notchy feeling I think.

 

Would you care to share those tips with us??

 

I find that you have to make sure that you are not pushing down or applying ANY downward pressure to the shifter (like you do for reverse) and then there is no longer a grind. Well so far that has worked for me. (2,500 miles) 2002 S.