T3650 1/3/5 lockout

[gooberwiper]

Man - strangest thing ever this morning. I was on the highway, merging from the onramp. Accelerated in 4th moderately (it was wet) and could NOT shift to 5th. In fact, I couldn't go 'north' of neutral at all and side to side in neutral was knocking against the 'gates' so something obviously had not released. Got to a stopping place and shut down. After some working it, I gently applied a little extra pressure and it grudgingly went into 1st. then back to 2nd, then stiffly into 3rd, etc. Felt 'dry', or like it had a bit of some foreign matter in the way. After several cycles of this, I drove home without incident.
Anybody ever had something like this happen? The only other lockout I've ever had was with a 3rd party shifter which I promptly swapped back to stock.
My guess is that there is a bit of silicone in there that somehow made its way onto the shift rods or into works. No other noises, no other issues at all. Definitely didn't drop any foreign matter in there when I had it apart, but it's a replacement tranny from Ford so I don't know what the history was before it was in my Mach (I complained about the 5th gear 'spun bearing' noise until they replaced it under warranty)
thanks for any inputs you guys have!

[1fast03mach]

Not my mach but my wife's jeep wrangler had the same problem ended up being the clutch,not saying this is the problem could also be the synchros.

[Flash88]

are you able to take it up with the dealership?

check the fluid?

[gooberwiper]

Way outta warranty at this point - 94300 on the odo and still running strong. This felt the same when everything was shut off so I'm not thinking that the clutch was out of adjustment or anything like that. This felt like something foreign was on the shift rods and it took a few 'cycles' to work out. Since then, it's just like always - not 'slick' or what I'd call 'jewel-like', but functional at least!
Guess I'll end up draining the fluid before it gets cold, and check for some sort of sediment/contamination.
Thanks for the ideas - If I find anything when I drain it I'll let y'all know.

[XSELLR8]

My guess would be cold. old trans fluid, a clutch cable that's wearing, maybe the clutch fork is messed up, or the throw out bearing (but that should make noise).

[gooberwiper]

Well, so far the results are good. To recap, I suddenly could not shift forward from neutral, and it felt like I was bumping the gates when I went left/right in what should have been neutral (against the forward gates).
Knowing that the clutch cable is adjusted properly and there was no dragging, and that the behavior was the same after I safely came to a stop, I worked it until it grudgingly gave way and began to work again. It was as though the forward movment had some kind of foreign matter on the rails, or was somehow dry. Kinda like freeing a bolt that is blue-locktited in, back and forth till it comes free.

I drained it, and replaced with 24 oz Lucas Tranny Fix and the remainder of 3.2qt Mobil 1 Synthetic ATF. Life is good again.

There are no leaks, at least not on the case or garage floor. I'm really scratching my head as to what happened. I'm going to pour the old fluid into a recycling container through cheesecloth to see if anything is in it, but there didn't appear to be any foreign matter, metal or otherwise, in what came out.

Thanks to all who replied - if anything more comes of this, I'll let y'all know.

[gooberwiper]

Well, that didn't last long. Did the same thing on the road yesterday. Obviously some kind of bind in there, but I sure don't know what's causing it.

[glittle75]

my vote is syncros, they are weak in the 3650's and usually the first sign is 3rd lockout.

[gooberwiper]

Looking at the service manual for the tr3650, and a couple of really good photos I came across, I'm thinking it's probably in the shift selector itself. When the transmission problem happens, it affects all the 'forward' selections and does it with the car parked and engine off, like something is binding or dry.

I don't think it's likely that all three shift rails encounter the problem at the same time. When it did occur, it affected 1/3/5 all at the same time. The diagrams show the detent pins on the shift rails, not the selector rail, so I'm really puzzled. The service manual for hard shift/lever won't move into gear as:
Clutch not releasing - verified this is not the case, and it does it parked
Improper or low transmission lubricant - just replaced it to verify this not the case
Shifter rail binding - this is my focus now
Binding of sliding synchros or gears - could be, but why all at once?
Worn or damaged flywheel pilot bushing - ? seems unlikely
Bell housing misaligned - ? never been off, seems very unlikely

Apart from this odd occurance, the thing shifts fine with all the usual TR3650 complaints ie can't shift into 3rd at high rpm, etc.

[gooberwiper]

I found several posts in several Mustang forums from American Powertrain who get good reviews, know their stuff and offer built tr3650s for a decent price should that become necessary, so I sent an email. I got an answer almost immediately (that doesn't happen much these days!) - thought I'd share. Doesn't sound like self-destruction is imminent, and it's only happened 3 times total. Once with a (good) aftermarket shifter thousands of miles ago, and then the 2 most recent times. I'm going to try to stick it out until time for a clutch, since it's making no noise and working ok at the moment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Gray Fredrick [mailto:gray@americanpowertrain.com]
Hey Chris,

According to one of our builders, it sounds like something binding up possibly on a 3rd/4th interlock detent. All of the rails are going backwards when you are shifting forward. Therefore that would be our best guess without opening it up.

If we are correct we would only have to remove tail shaft housing and 5th gear to diagnose and repair. But, if we are wrong we have to go all the way into it, possible replacing blockers or a bad bearing.

Hope this helps. We will be glad to have you send it over for a look if needed.

Oh, BTW, is it making any horrible noises? A bearing would generally howl like mad.

Respects,
Gray

PLEASE GO TO THE LINK BELOW AND LIKE OUR FACEBOOK PAGE!!
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Americ...n/160876862676

http://www.americanpowertrain.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------