Difficulty Shifting into Reverse After Track Day

I found a somewhat similar post under "transmission issues" but not quite same. Thought I'd ask this.

So I just finished a track day. While going at near redline RPM and shifting from 2nd to 3rd, stupid me . . . I grinded the gear . . . twice. Ouch! My bad. They were very loud and I heard them through my helmet. I am no mechanic, but assuming that's real bad.

After the session while testing and checking the car, I noticed two things:

1. the shifting is no longer "smooth." Now very notchy.
2. particularly, shifting into reverse is really, really difficult now. Now it does not want to go into reverse. Still switches though. And it's not as simple as putting it into first gear and slightly moving a little before going into reverse. It does shift into reverse with relatively no problem but only when the car is not started...if that helps.

Before, the shifting was all buttery smooth. I just got a transmission oil change before the event, using Motorcraft Mercon V. Before my bad shifting incident at the track, the shifting from gear to gear and even into reverse has always felt smooth, no notchy, catching, etc. Never any issues.

I am real concerned I screwed something up. I have spent quite a bit of hard earned cash on my beloved S197 car that I bought new back in 2008, and man I feel bad. Any ideas, thoughts, recommendations? If so and the suggestion is "take it to a shop" and have them look at it, any suggestions of a good, fair priced one in either LA County or Orange County in California? Any help appreciated. Thanks as always.

2008 Mustang GT, 123K miles.

I am no expert at all with manual transmissions. But I have experienced how much a fluid change can effect the feel of the shifting. Try another oil change. Penz synchromesh is awesome for our trans as well.

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You trashed the synchros.

Slackinoff: i hope thats all it is. Hope hope.
Skwerl: if i did trash the synchros, what's the usual fix? Expensive??

Aa always, thx for responses.

The synchros themselves are cheap, the labor isn't. I've never pulled a 3650 apart so can't help you even estimate what kind of time a shop would charge.

My suggestion would be to pull the transmission out of the car and bring just the transmission to a shop if you are not comfortable with pulling it apart yourself.

The money spent to tear into and rebuild a 3650 is most always not worth it. Pick up a 6060 and go forth

Oh man, I was hoping not to hear that word "rebuild."

Red09GT: so you would think any "transmission" shop would be OK with our cars?

Speedboosted: 6060 trans cost? What would be the advantage of using a 6060?

Tremec transmissions are usually pretty easy to work on so anyone who say that they are a transmission mechanic should be able to fix it.
Another option is to look for a used 3650 as they can be had cheap since a lot of people upgrade to something better.

Yoyo1 said:

Speedboosted: 6060 trans cost? What would be the advantage of using a 6060?

Click to expand...

Astro Performance sells reman ones on eBay for like $1800. Then just get a Exedy 07806 clutch and stock shifter/ds. All in about $2400 for parts. It's much much stronger and when combined with 4.10 gears makes for a great all around car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YBeFZzv83Y

Great video by Paul of the Tremec 3550. Basically the same as our 3650. Not rocket surgery.

http://pro-forceperformance.com/tr3650_parts.htm
Parts for the rebuild. Never used these guys so I can't vouch for the parts being better than OEM.

Swapping to the 6060 is gonna be a rebuilt trans, drive shaft, and cross member at least.

Wow. This is gonna be expensive. Yikes.

least expensive way would to find a unit from a wrecked car to swap with your

Change the fluid first with before worrying about a rebuild.

What fluid to use is another topic on its own. The manual calls for Mercon V (ex. Mobil1 ATF) which is what I use and others like Synchromesh. You will need 3.2 quarts. Whatever you do don't use gear oil.

46addict said:

Change the fluid first with before worrying about a rebuild.

What fluid to use is another topic on its own. The manual calls for Mercon V (Mobil1 ATF) which is what I use and others like Synchromesh. You will need 3.2 quarts. Whatever you do don't use gear oil.

Click to expand...

My vote as well. Even two changes. My car had original fill (a guess) but a change to penz synchromesh made a big difference. Give the new oil time to work. I know when I did my change to synchromesh, it took a couple of weeks of driving to really kick in.....the weird part was when I finally decided to do some quick (not power) quick shifting. It's like that helped as well.....burn off some of that old material. After some hard driving, the trans shifts even better. Weird.


Rm

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Slackinoff and 46addict:

I like them suggestions. Its kind of weird, I just got back from testing out the car. Oddly, it now shifts (not quite butterly smooth as b4 incident but a little bit better than after) and goes into reverse with little difficulty, but also not smooth. I think i will go inexpensive route and switch transmission oil. I changed transmission fluid about 1 week b4 event but I'll do it again. Hopefully will work. Will let u guys know. THX for all input!!

Speedboosted said:

Astro Performance sells reman ones on eBay for like $1800. Then just get a Exedy 07806 clutch and stock shifter/ds. All in about $2400 for parts. It's much much stronger and when combined with 4.10 gears makes for a great all around car

Click to expand...

you will also need crossmember
if he buys just the trans he will need the rear trans mount also.

There are a couple old threads on here. Search for "tr3650 rebuild" and you will find them. Like stkjock said, pick up a low mileage spare from a junkyard. I got one for $350 at a local yard and it gave me zero problems. Then pick up some of the specialized tools you need to do the rebuild from harbor freight. Gear pullers, threaded rod, ect. Contact Stan at http://pro-forceperformance.com/ to get the rebuild parts you need (synchros and stuff).

Then have at it trying to rebuild your 3650 you just took out. It ain't that difficult. Just time consuming if it's your first time. If you can rebuild a rear differential you can do this. Between the money you spend on tools and the rebuild parts it will probably cost around $500-$600 bucks. Another bonus is now you will have a spare transmission ready to go. Tremec's are easy to break, especially if you are going to track days. In my opinion the biggest problem isn't the tremec itself, it's the remote shifter that puts added stress on the transmission when making high rpm, high stress shifts, and forcing the gear changes. The blowfish shifter bracket is a good band aid solution, but many people don't like it for a daily driver. I don't mind the extra noise and vibration caused by it though.

Here are the assembly and disassembly manuals.

If you can study and pass a high school algebra or geometry test, you can follow these instructions. You don't need to buy all of the specialized tools Ford recommends. Most important thing is the best/most expensive pair of lock ring pliers you can buy ($20/$25 bucks). Don't go cheap on that one and "snap ring" pliers will not be adequate. Get some cheap gear pullers from harbor freight and some 3 or 4ft sections of threaded rod from home depot and you should be good to go. You will also probably need to buy a big ass socket to get the output flange nut off. I think it was 22mm or maybe bigger. And DO NOT buy the impact socket version that costs an extra $10 bucks. The outer diameter of that impact socket will be too wide to fit inside the output flange. You need a skinny socket. You also need a friend to hold the flange when trying to break the flange nut free. It's a mofo. The rest of rebuild is a one man job.

And here are some other PDFs on the 3650.

Hi guys. Sorry for late reply...had to work. Wow man... I was not anticipating rebuilding the tranny myself. I guess I'm pretty mechanically inclined although I'm somewhat lazy to do things. LOL. I will definitely look into all suggestions mention. I'm going to start with the easy one and just replace the transmission fluid and see how she feels. Maybe that will resolve the issue... I don't know we'll see. But I think all suggestions indicating getting a used tranny is a pretty damn good idea also. Apparently, it won't cost me an arm and a leg to do it. Which is good because I am totally out of money! Might even be fun putting it together.