grinding manual tranny question....

I'm no mechanic. My 99 has a manual transmission. Sometimes when I shift into reverse I hear a grinding sound, like gears grinding. It sort of slows down untill it drops into gear. Is this a problem? How do I fix it or should I have a tranny shop look into it? Thanks!

Adam

The reverse gear are straight cut, unlike the foward gears, which have an offset like a ring and pinion. They will make that grind, mine does. If you want to stop it, shift into a foward gear like 3rd or 5th, then into reverse. It will slow down the syncro speed and allow you to shift into reverse without a grind. I have a '64 El Camino with a M21 4 spd, and shifting from 1st into Reverse will not make it grind. Same for most all manual trannys.

Also when backing up, you may notice a louder howl from the trannny, which is normal for straight cut gears.

You have the AX15. Correct? IIRC, 00-01 had the NV3550. Don't know if the 3550 had straight cut gears like the AX15.

3550 has a synro'd reverse IIRC.
You may also want to wait a minute with the clutch in before trying to get to reverse. When you have the truck in neutral with the cluthc out the input shaft spins, if you push the cluth in and immediately try to go to reverse the input shaft hasn't stopped spinning, and you will grind the gears until it stops, then it slips into reverse. Give it a few seconds with the clutch to the floor before trying to go to reverse and I bet your problem goes away.

See if it also shifts hard into first. If it takes a real push to get into first and also grinds going into reverse, you might have clutch drag, and it might be time to check out the hydraulics. If it settles down after waiting a few seconds, it's all right.