Well i dont know what happened to my last post about this but my 95 is hard as heck to shift down into second. I start off in second, and thats what your supposed to start off in right??. Well when i go to down shift into second its realy hard. I have to push it down and then eventualy it will slide in, or sometimes i will have to push it into first, not puting it in gear but puhing it into the first gear slot, and then i can slide it into second and stat off. i dont know if this is normal but its anoying and i hate it cause its hard for my fiance to drive it when she needs too. I just put in a new trany a couple yars ago but it sat for a long time, it has like mybe 2000 miles on it, and a new turbo that has less then 1000 miles on it, I dont know if i should do a trany service or what. Any one have any ideas. i would be greatly appriciated

 

I also have a 96 F350 7.3 CC, LB 4X4 with issues shifting down to second. I can upstift just fine, but when going from 3rd to 2nd I have to get down to about 5mph before I can shift cleanly without grinding. The upsift works great. Any ideas on what could cause this? Maybe 2nd going out in the truck? I just got the truck and this is my first HD F350.

Thanks!

 

well on mine I just had mine rebuilt about 5000 miles ago and I realy font remember if it did it before so I don't think it's goungg out on either of our trucks. Maybe it's just one of those ford things but I know that it drives me crazy. I am prety sure that it's the sincronizers, because the sinkros have to sinkronize for it to slip in. It bugs me cause I don't want to strip my gears. My trany went out and I could not reverse so I had it rebuilt and when I had it rebuilt I had it geared down more for mor tork it's great execp the shifting down. What i do to get it to shift down is push the shifter up in first not putting it in gear but just pushing and then it will slide into second but i donk I should not hve to do it. Nathan

 

Couple things . . . First, is the bushing or the shaft eyelet itself worn down on shaft that goes from the clutch pedal to the master cylinder? Second, is there excessive movement when pushing down on either the brake or clutch pedal . . . There is a bracket on the firewall that holds the pedal assembly that has been known to crack. If either of these has happened it would cause you to not get full engage/disengagement of your clutch. Also have you tried double-clutching? That can help in diagnosing synchronizer issues.

 

You really shouldn't start off in second. These transmissions are retardedly (is that a word?) long-legged.

Your problem is due to worn synchronizer rings in the transmission. These are usually made of brass and have a tapered internal surface with oil-shearing grooves machined into them. These allow the oil to shear between the synchronizer and blocker rings and allow the input shaft and main shaft speeds to "synchronize" and allow a gear change. Now, depending on upshift or downshift, the transmission input shaft will speed up (downshift) or slow down (upshift) to accomplish a nice, synchronized, quick shift.

When the grooves on the brass wear out, the oil is not sheared and the speed of the input shaft and output shaft cannot be matched and the dogs in the blocker rings and synchros will not be allowed to line up so the shift cannot take place (you'll often get a "whining" sound from the transmission as the input shaft speeds up while trying to downshift). However, without any friction between the blocker ring and synchronizer, the input shaft is unable to attain the high speed necessary to allow the shift collar to engage with the range gear.

It sounds complicated, but it's pretty easy to understand if you're familiar with the internal components.

Basically, you need to have the transmission rebuilt (and this time with new blocker rings, shift collars, and synchronizers).