The problem is, anything you do to help shifting at higher RPM's, makes shifting at lower RPM's that much harder. You will tear the shit out of the synchro's in short order, but yes, cutting every other tooth helps out. A buddy of mine used to do that to the T5's in his SVO. It made some godaweful noises when driving on the street, but he was running 7.60's in a full weight car 10 years ago.

 

Update: Pulled the tranny today. It was as I expected.... Funeral services for 3rd gear will be held at my local dumpster.

 

Just clean it out and throw some Lucas in it!

 

Well, what time is the service? I might have to bring 6 good friends to say goodbye...

 

feel free to stop by today , Brett! lmao

 

I would invest in some billet shift forks while you have it apart. I'm of the opinion that the stock parts were or at least partially the cause of your 3rd gear's demise.

Hurst

 

Mark, as hard as you launch that car, I can't believe it was third that gave up. I agree with Hurst, for 3rd to go, that sounds like more of a shift fork issue than excessive torque applied to the gear.

 

He's had problems with 3rd gear since he had the tranny built. From the way he had been describing the problem,.. the only way to get into 3rd at speed was to power shift it and let it eat.. This is not normal for T45's. Usually they are fairly smooth. His was acting like the TKO's at high RPM.

Knowing that is why I'm of the opinion that he's got a bent shift fork, and 3rd probably never really engaged correctly and thats why it took a shit.

I've destroyed more T45's than anyone I know. I've had them get stuck in 3rd gear, stuck in 2nd, had 5th gear fail and then lock up in 4th gear at 65 mph, I've broken the input shaft,.. you name it. After I took it apart you couldnt visually see anything wrong. The shift forks look normal. I'd put it back together and after beating on it hard it would lock in 3rd again. A friend suggested I replace the shift forks, I had a couple parts tranny's so I replaced them and viola,.. started shifting smooth as butter again.

I'm not tranny expert. I'm more of an R&R man when it comes to those things. I can take it apart and replace parts,.. but actually looking at it and knowing that something in particular is bad,.. unless its melted, burnt or visibly worn out,.. I have no clue what I'm doing.

Hurst

 

The problems with 3rd when I got it rebuilt was due to I had the clutch cable on the wrong hook on the quadrant. Once I put it on the other one it shifted into 3rd fine. But maybe those times that it wouldn't could have started its demise. If anything I'll probably get a billet shiftfork for the 3-4.