I'd be very surprised to learn that any of the M5 forks are made out of Aluminum. I've certainly never seen any.

 

I was planning on ordering them off of all state gear, if i wanted to get the fork that has the U shaped opening, would i purchase the 88-95 fork or the 96+ fork? That is really what I am confused about.

 

would the wear on the forks cause you to not be able to shift into gear at all ?

 

In my experience, no. One of mine was about 75% worn through and it still shifted fine. Once worn (or broken through) all the way, then no shifting gets done.

 

from my experience, yes when mine went out I had just arrived at school, I had no reverse but yet if I let my clutch all the way out the truck would stall, on my way home I was stopped at a light and I put her in 1st to scoot up and even tho the shifter was in neutral (like I could wiggle it around like your supposed to in neautral) the truck would stall so I had to make sure that I took her in and out of first gear 2-3 times then finally, no more than a block from my house, I went around a turn in second gear, foot on the clutch, comin out of the turn I let out the clutch and my shifter just dropped on my seat, niraly I have 2-3 inches clearance but shifter and seat (because of how far up the seat is) after that happened the truck started chugging real bad like she was in 4th, mind you she was engaged in 2nd gear when the stick hit my seat, so I don't know if it was a combination of 2nd&4th? (insert brownie box joke here) lol anyways, got home finally, taking off from that last stop sign was ridiculous, I dropped the trans and sent it off to a guy my gramps knows he said my shift forks were F'd

 

In my experience, yes. Shifts from 1 to 2 became excessively difficult, and ultimately I lost the ability to shift into 1 or 2, but 3 and 4, 5 and R worked just fine.

Dropped the transmission and replaced the forks with new parts. That was probably back in 2001 or so, and it's been fine ever since.

 

This is exactly what happened to me, so that fixed your problem then ?

 

This is what's happening, I can't get into those gears at all, so in order for me to change the forks, I need to drop my transmission ?

 

No. Shifter/forks assembly comes off from the top. Can readily be done with transmission left in place. Search for some posts from me a couple years ago with pics and tips on what not to do.

 

That's what I was thinking, I just wanted to double check, especially with the way my luck has been going. Alright, I appreciate, will do brother.

 

ok I search thru your posts, and I can't seem to find the one I'm looking for at all, am I missing something ?

 

I have had this happen to me 2 times in the past year. I have no clue what caused it but as you said you would lose 1st and 2nd gear. I have the inline 6 (4.9 300) and both times I was on a busy road. I avoided going up hill and started in 3rd. I cringed the whole time feeling terrible for my clutch, but you have to do what you have to do. I don't know what causes it. I would like to know as well so I can get it figured out. And not have to spend $50 on a new fork every 5-6 months.

 

Roughly how many miles is it lasting? I should probably check mine given your experience. It would be nice if we had someone in here who really knows this gearbox. I never bought into the notion that using the gearshift handle as a hand-rest is the cause.

 

If I owned a ranch I would bet it that you drive with your hand resting on the shift lever. I used to. As I understand it, you are lightly engaging the fork with the slider that they fit in causing your excessive wear. Kinda like riding the brakes. Sandy

 

See my comment above. I've heard this suggestion before, and I don't buy into it being the cause of this failure. That said, I don't use the shifter as a hand rest, just in case.