Hi All,

The Search feature is not working now, so I hope this isn't an overly-posted question.

My '00 has about 17k miles on it, and I'm now finding it difficult to get the car into reverse every now and then. The commonly-used 1st-then-reverse trick usually works, but occasionally, the tranny will not fully engage. While I don't have a lot of miles on the car, I do drive it fairly hard and the car has seen a couple track days. I don't know a lot about transmissions, so I was wondering if a tranny fluid change could help this?

Thanks in advance!

 

Yes I have a 00' with 17k on it, its diffilcult to find reverse. a gear fluid change will help too. there is a TSB 02-046. drive safe

 

Thank you.

Looking into some threads regarding TSB 02-046, I don't skip gears and my 5th seems pretty solid (knock-on-wood). I don't quite understand how fresh fluid would help this, but I have heard fresh fluid makes shifts feel more 'buttery' in some cases. I'll give that a try first.

Thanks again.

 

I changed out the trans fliud with a synthetc lube, as many have done here. redline mt-90 or mtl is a good choice. it take abuot 2 qts. if you have the factory lube with 17k on your car I would change it soon.

 

Try taking your foot off the brake so the car rolls slightly as you push the lever towards reverse. You only need to let the car creep a few inches. As the car rolls the gears turn slowly. The problem may be that the dog teeth on reverse are lining up exactly up with the hub teeth. When the car moves slightly the teeth will rotate to a gap between the hubs teeth.

Unfortunately this doesnt work if the car is on a perfectly flat ground. You can knudge the car forward an inch in 1st and have another go at reverse.

Speedracer.

 

[QUOTE=chris_barry,Jul 18 2004, 11:48 PM] Try taking your foot off the brake so the car rolls slightly as you

 

Just don't use a synthetic in the tranny

 

Huh?

Redline MTL and MT-90 are both full synthetics and they have been highly recommended for use in the S2000 transmission. Where did this come from?

 

well crap, it was my understanding that synthetic was a "no-no" for the tranny....

I know I read a number of posts explaing why and it had something to do with the synchros...anyway my bad

 

The reverse gear selectors use tiny little V shaped teeth that a selector hub with slots in it slides over. The face end of the hub also has V profile. When you select a gear, if the teeth are lined head to head the sharp V allows them to mesh by pushing the gear slightly one way or the other.

After some normal wear and tear the V profile becomes more of a U and you can get instances when the teeth will hit each other head to head and the gears wont mesh till you do something to move them.

This wear can be accelerated by crunching into reverse while the car is still moving forwards at speed, or shoving it into reverse immediately after pressing the clutch. Waiting a second allows the gears on the input half of the box to stop spinning.

Forward gears dont have this problem as they are normally engaged while moving and the syncro assembly matches the speed, and actually assist with lining up the dog teeth.

I would just get used to rolling the car slightly. On race car dog boxes this head to head gear lock out is very common. To get into reverse or first you hold the lever towards the gear, then lift slightly off the clutch. You can actually feel the gears rotating and the lever drops into place when the dogs line up. You could try this technique on your car.

Speedracer.