Question: 6 speed problem

[alka1967]

I had my vette serviced recently to replace an emmission control sensor by a mechanic I have used for years for my personal cars. When he road tested the vette, he said a snychro blew and lodged between 4th and 5th gear. He said he was shifting into 6th gear when this happened and the stick shift ended up locked in reverse gear.

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? There are 41,000 miles on the car. I am the 3rd owner and don't know if the car was raced or dragged by a previous owner. The rear tires had less tread than the front tires when I bought the car, so it may have been dragged. The car has run great for the 2 1/2 years I have owned it.

Thanks.

 

[muddywaters]

I would not want to say that your mech. took it for a ride, but every time I sold a Vette, I took the interested party for a ride. Never did I let anyone drive a car they wished they had. I know your wondering, it seems the tranny failed prematurely to me.....

 

[muddywaters]

And to add, I don't think the high gears get much use when your drag racing.........

 

[sstearns2]

I'd go to zfdoc.com and give that guy a call. Are the slave and master for the clutch original? Hopefully it's not as bad as you think....

Scott

 

[alka1967]

Thanks Muddywaters and Scott. Yes, I suspect my mechanic got on it because it doesn't sound like something that would happen on its own. I emailed Bill at zfdoc.com for his opinion too - thanks for the link. My mechanic says I'm looking at a whole new transmission since two gears are shot and the rear housing is cracked.

 

[gmjunkie]

Thanks Muddywaters and Scott. Yes, I suspect my mechanic got on it because it doesn't sound like something that would happen on its own. I emailed Bill at zfdoc.com for his opinion too - thanks for the link. My mechanic says I'm looking at a whole new transmission since two gears are shot and the rear housing is cracked.

I think your Mechanic is a Gear Jamm'n CowBoy and needs to go back with driving Farm Implements!!

 

[G Winter]

I think your mechanic should be looking at a whole new tranny. These six speeds aren't tin cans. It takes some real abuse to break one.

Glenn

 

[John Robinson]

Insurance

If the mechanic has a regular business repairing cars than he has insurance to cover situations like this.

I also agree that the mileage was very low for this kind of failure.

I would look at the shift linkage to make sure they did not damage it with a forced shift at speed. The linkage will lock the tranny if the shift levers get out of correct position to each other.

I am curious about the cracked housing. Since you say it is the rear housing could the rear seal be bad? Do you have a visible crack or just oil dripping from it?

Did you sign anything or say anything that gave him permission to test drive the car?

At this early stage in the negotiation with the mechanic I would make it clear that it is his responsibility to repair the car at his expense.

What did you leave the car at the mechanic for? Was it for a regular oil change service? In which case the oil level in the transmission should have been checked. The reason for this question is if in fact the synchronizers are bad then I would suspect the rear housing was leaking and the transmission got low on oil causing the premature failure of the synchronizers. However for this to have happened you would have been noticing oil on the ground under the transmission.

 

[alka1967]

Thanks everyone.

Bill from zfdoc.com got back to me and he thinks it was an oil problem - low/ high level or old oil (I would suspect old since there were no leaks) and that reverse gear creates the most heat. He also said a replacement would be cheaper than a rebuild and gave me a link on eBay to get a new unit.

It's only natural to suspect the tranny was abused, but I do trust the mechanic - we go back many years and he has always provided me with excellent, honest service.

 

[bradfordsvettes]

nice to see someone has some faith in their tech . I do agree there is reason for some people to be sour over bad repairs Steve

 

[John Robinson]

I was not trying to discredit your mechanic I was simply trying to present some possibilities that may not have been thought of yet. Many years ago I worked for a transmission manufacture. We shipped our units to the assembly plant dry. I was involved in cases where the assembly plant put the wrong oil in our units or they overfilled them and we even had a days run that they did not put oil at all in our units. We found out about the dry units when service starting screaming for us to ship replacement units direct to the dealer. In the case of the Corvette I can think of only two oils they would have for transmissions one being for automatics and the other for manuals. Just out of curiosity look at the oil in your transmission and see if by some mistake if it is automatic fluid. Again the mileage on your car is Way too premature for the type of failure you had.

 

[bradfordsvettes]

no flames here just glad to see someone does have faith in their tech .you have to admit there is a lot of bashing that goes on and a lot is justified . being in the trade makes it hard to listen to some times. My customers have no complints here but everyone can make a mistake only human. I do see syncro failures in these at times but they mostly grind never seen one do that and like you stated milage is fairly low steve