ToplessMustang

I feel like throwing in my 2 cents... I'm not a mechanic, nor have I ever worked at a dealership, but what I have done is drive clutches since I was 5. First one was a 50cc motorcycle. Over the years(now I'm 35) I have had the pleasure of driving lots of motorcycles, some crappy cars and some very nice cars. My experience, in lemans term, because that's what I am, is this:
All cars, if "enjoyed" with quick shifting, will have its synchros worn prematurely. This causes the gears to not quite line up as nicely. IE...you get that minor toothy grid noise which is exactly what it is - a minor grid. The gears are not lined up. The most common weak one always seems to be that 2nd gear synchro, cause it's really fun to bang shift from 1st to 2nd! This does not necessarily mean the transmission is a piece of crap or the driver was inexperience - they just had fun with the car. Most of us do, don't we?

Two things can be done about it. Break open the tranny, replace the synchro, and as long as you're in there...replace the gears, clutch, throw-out bearing, and everything else that will make this major operation worth while... Or, you can learn to shift differently - cause you will run into this on lots of vehicles in your life. Later, when the transmission really has something wrong with it - then you do an upgrade and enjoy brand new synchros for a while.

Here's my story for the evening My dad's friend / old racing partner and Porsche mechanic once worked on my 66 MGB. The engine was freshly rebuilt and we had started it for the first time. Unfortunately the clutch was not functional. No problem, we took it out for a spin without using the clutch. We had the car in first when we cranked it over. The battery was enough to turn the engine over and get the car rolling(yes, it started). When 1st got to 3K rpms he pulled it in neutral, held the rmps at around 2k and pulled it into 2nd. All of this WITHOUT using the clutch. The rest of the shifting went similarly. He just knew about where the rpms wanted to be for that next gear and lined them up manually. Yes, there was a little grind here and there, but he proved his point...you don't have to have a clutch to shift / make the gears line up. The synchros job is to line up the gears, but you can do it manually without using them at all. And here's the moral of the story: If you ARE using a clutch but still help the synchros with a manual line up, not only will you avoid that toothy thing, but the sychros will experience less wear over time.

Basically what was said before about taking the rpms up to 3K is really helpfull to the synchros. Doesn't mean you always take it up that high, but if you pop the rpms up higher than it normally would be(maybe 1k higher) you can save sychro wear and avoid the toothyness. More and more practice of this leads to longer synchro life, and smoother shifting which impresses friends, who talk about you at parties, which is how women hear of you, who ask if she and her friend could go for a ride in your car and so on - you know where this is going! It of course works downshifting too.
Just my humble opinion.

ToplessMustang

By the way, I bought a 2002 GT with 10K on it. The second gear does exactly the same thing as you describe. When the tranny's cold it happens when it warms up it basically doesn't. The above is how I avoid the toothyness on this and all the vehicles I drive.

MichaelKnight

Welp, since we're on the topic, I have a 2003 GT, and I have the same exact issue. It's basically my first shift when I pull out of my driveway in the morning... by the time I'm at the stop sign, which is about a half mile away, my next 1-2 shift is smooth. Maybe I should just start pulling out of my driveway in second from the start.