transmission issues

[johnnyA101]

This is going to be long: I have a 93 4X4 with the M05D-R1 and I at times have trouble getting it into gear, but not always. Either it shifts fine or I have some level of difficulty. All of the difficulty comes at a full stop. Starting with the lightest: A little stiff going into gear, obviously it is most noticeable with 1st and reverse but other gears also exhibit this behavior, just not as stiff. Second (and most common) trans won't go into 1st or reverse and sometimes 2nd. When this happens I do 1 of 2 things, 1: I try each successive gear until it goes in to one, then shift in and out of that gear a couple of time the select my gear of choice or 2: I let the clutch out and release the brake then reapply everything, wait about 4 or 5 seconds then put it into gear. The second one works pretty good but if the light turns green the people behind me don't like waiting. Worst case (and least frequent): it won't go into any gear, when this happens I shut the engine off, release the brake momentarily while shifting into gear (it is usually pretty stiff) then restarting. I did some searching and found a few with somewhat similar issues but there isn't always any indication as to how it was resolved. For the most part there are no unusual noises (whining, etc.) but it does occasionally grind (very infrequent) or clunk when going into reverse. And it shifts fine while in motion. Patience typically works the best and releasing the brake sometimes helps. In a way it is like everything is binding up and has to settle into position before moving agian. My first thought was the clutch: with the rear wheels in the air when I first start the truck occasionally the wheels will spin slowly then eventually stop, but I can gently grab the wheel and stop them; either way after the wheels have stopped they will not move again after that unless I move them. Also when I move them by hand there is no difference in effort forwards or backwards, regardless of whether they spin at start up or not (at least not that I can tell). So I checked the clutch (175K miles) but there were no leaks, fluid level is normal and everything appears to be fine (just old) and again no unusual noises. Changed the trans fluid (got about 2 quarts or so out), pretty nasty looking and a fair amount of sludge and metal debris on the magnet attached to the drain plug. Not sure what else I can check short of pulling the trans out and looking inside. I am still leaning towards the clutch but I am far from convinced. I don't want to just throw parts at it until the problem goes away. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks,
John

 

[bottledgt]

you either have a clutch or a slave cylinder prob

 

[peacjt]

I have the same, a 93 with the M50D-R1 but in a 4x2. Mine does the same exact thing. There's times that I just jammed it in and then its ok. I don't want to break anything. I don't think it's the clutch or slave cyl. I could be wrong though. I will try this test. The next time it does this, I will pump the clutch several times, just like when a brake master cylinder is going out. If it corrects the situation, then maybe the clutch cylinder isn't fully releasing. I think mine is because it never tries to take off or drift if you put it in gear with the clutch in sitting still. I would think that if it was not fully releasing, it would have a slight drag. I'm going to try the pumping and see what happens.