i owned a 97 F150 Xcab with manual trans.....grinded going into third gear. Had the problem since the truck had 1200 miles on it. Every time i took it to the dealership(s) the service advisor said they couldn't find anything wrong. The bad thing is, i work in the parts dept of the dealership that kept telling me nothing was wrong with my truck. After constant bitching, i finally got them to fix the darn thing, 56000 miles later. I am glad i had the problem documented. They ended up changing the synchro........under warranty.

 

Well it was interesting to read that Stevenf150 put 80W-90 gear oil in there, I was thinking of Redline MTL myself. Obviously the ATF can't cope at high temps because the hotter my truck gets, the worse it shifts. I am almost to 30K so it's time to change the tranny fluid anyways. It's definitely getting synthetic of some sort. What I would really like is to have the dealership fix it and then go back and put the synthetic in there from the start. Oh well.

 

No way (for me) to prove this, I was told that the standards have a ball bearing between each gear which causes it to shift hard. I've darn near broken my wrist a few time from 2nd to 3rd shift, so I just do not do it. I'll be getting a auto when my lease is up in 2003.

V/6 standard
Crewcab 4-2

 

What does the synchro do anyways?

 

Synchronizers
Manual transmissions in modern passenger cars use synchronizers to eliminate the need for double-clutching. A synchro's purpose is to allow the collar and the gear to make frictional contact before the dog teeth make contact so that the collar and the gear can synchronize their speeds before the teeth need to engage. Like this:



The cone on the blue gear fits into the cone-shaped area in the collar, and friction between the cone and the collar synchronize the collar and the gear. The outer portion of the collar then slides so that the dog teeth can engage the gear.

Every manufacturer implements their transmissions and synchros in special ways, but you now have the general idea!
my knowledge;
how stuff works-synchros

 

That's it. I can't take it anymore! I'm calling the dealer!!!!!!

 

Got shafted by the dealership tonight. Try somewhere else next week.

 

I thought for sure that it was always me shifting between 2nd and 3rd. that ********r has done so since i've driven it off the lot. When i shift slow, there is never a problem, but when i shift normal, 3rd grinds almost on a daily basis. Has anyone actually had ford fix this under warranty??? My truck just turned a year old on 8/31........ I just broke 7000 miles...but i hate that fact that that thing always grinds....please advise!!!!

 

Planning on bringing mine in on Thurs/Fri. hopefully. I'll let you know what happens.
There is a TSB for this exact problem 2nd to 3rd. Check it out.!!!

 

try redline D4 ATF, i just put some in my tranny and it helped shifting alot, still not smooth, but much better than with the stock ATF. it only takes 3.75 quarts so its not too expensive, and you dont have to change it but like every 60000 miles. i've never had my transmission grind, but when you try to shift fast its really notchy... if you go slow its fine. well i'm going to see whats going on with this world trade center crap.... somebody needs to pay for this.

 

heh, i'd use the manual tranny oil, however, in colder climantes, you can't shift the trans in the wintertime that's the only problem with that. Well, that and the trans isn't designed for it, and you could end up doing more damage than good.

 

the trans is designed for mercon ATF, and thats what the redline D4 is - if you use something thats not an ATF, you might mess up your warranty

 

I had a problem with my 99 F-150 5 speed shifting from 1st to 2nd but after 20,000 miles it's no longer a problem. One day i shifted to 2nd and it was smooth and it's been that way ever since.

 

The Red Line D4 ATF is good stuff. It made a big improvement in my shifting.

 

By the way the TSB was at alldata.com. I found it serching 97 f150 4.2L 2500 miles with a new slave cylinder and no grinding