3rd gear synchro?!?!

[JackMcBill]

Help me diagnose my grinding issue: So the clutch is fine and when I row through the gears for upshifts it goes into the gears fine. However, when I am downshifting into third from relatively high rpms ie. braking when getting off on a freeway offramp it grinds as if the clutch wasn't fully engaged or something. It feels like it would if I tried to shift it into gear with the clutch pedal not fully depressed. Driving style is ruled out because it doesn't happen in any of the other gears on this or my other manual car. I make absolutely sure the clutch is fully pressed as well. Does this sound like a synchro issue?! Has anybody else ever had a 3rd-4th gear synchro go bad (I know the 1-2 is infamous)? Could there be a clutch adjustment to cure this? Would a mis-aligned short shifter possibly cause this (keep in mind if I'm not coming down from higher speeds/RPM's it engages fine)? HELP!

[Mattgfx]

sounds like your slider/ synchro ... Rob had this problem but he couldn't even get into 3rd gear it completely locked up.. Sounds like a rebuild tranny soon or try some new tranny fluid! Im in kinda the same boat as you just with 2nd gear when the car is cold..

[JackMcBill]

Anyone else have any input???

[YZracer]

Yea sounds like a syncro/slider issue. Like Bigair said, I had my tranny go. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear shifts were almost impossible. However, the problem with my tranny was the 1st and second gear syncro. The syncro was just so f**ed up for 1st/2nd, it made 3rd a pain in the ass to shift into even though my 3rd/4th gear syncro was perfect.

It doesn't sound like you tranny is gone yet, but sounds like the syncro is getting close to it. If your 3rd-4th syncro goes then I'll be happy to sell you my busted tranny with a bad 1-2 syncro. You probably have a little while before your syncro goes assuming you don't push your car to the limit every second.