drivingperson

1. It sometimes wont go into first without taking it out and trying three or four times
2. Reverse is impossible to get into even after waiting 5 seconds in first(if i can get it into first)
3. Sometimes clunks like crazy when going from 1st to 2nd but other times its as smooth as ice: it depends on how the car is feeling that day I guess?
4. When coasting in neutral the RPMs go up to about 2 grand before settling down to 1.

Dealer says all this is normal...is it? does anyone else have these problems?

Feel free to add any of your own problems. This is a judgment-free zone.

sdsguy

i find that if i have a problem getting into reverse, all i have to do is go into 1 then 2nd, and it fixes it. if i had a problem with 1st, i'll let go of the clutch and try again.

banka87

I get the same RPM issue...

LL88

Same here - one morning, when the engine was cold, I had to drive anyways cuz I was late. When I put the clutch in, or the car in neutral, it would rev up to about 3000 rpm and stay there for about 1 minute before settling back down. As for the clunk, yea its pretty annoying, but not too bad. When I test drove a GT i noticed that it had no clunk or transmission noise whatesoever.And the reverse thing, mine kinda mellowed out over time, but sometimes its still hard 2 put if reverse.

cvz_finezt

base model fords never had very smooth transmissions. we got a truck transmission thts been in use for over 20 years, even GM, and Dodge uses it.a kinda one size fits all type of deal ya know

andrews0915

Well, here's my input: I have had the car in numerous times for tranny issues
I too had a b*&^* of a time getting into first, and sometimes it would pop out. When they took it to the tranny guy he replaced the entire first gear and now its great. I too have the RPM issue, its normal as is the clunking sometimes. I also have an annoying rattle mostly in third gear and am in the midst of having them figure that out. The guy at the shop says that the gearing for our cars is great for the V8 but just not right for our cars which leads to some of these little issues.

acrokat

To fix most of the noises you should switch out your Driveshaft and get a K-member Brace. This will get rid of about 70% of the noises you hear as well as clean up the shifting at WOT.

The whole shifting into reverse thing has to do with the gears lining up correctly. Putting the car into another gear and then in reverse will force the tranny to realign itself. This should allow you to slip into rev easier.

p51mstg

+1

Reverse is not synchronised, like the forward gears. Both my 86GT and 94GT had the same problem with reverse, and I consider it part of the "nature of the beast". Somebody in another thread said that 1st gear isn't synchro'd, either, but I haven't heard that from anybody else.

Some of the old-timers on this forum probably know more about this than I do, but one of the old tricks to shifting a non-synchro'd tranny was called "double-clutching". As I understand it, what you did was
1 - push the clutch in to get out of one gear and into nuetral. Then,
2 - let out the clutch.
3 - Push the clutch back in, and shift into the next gear.

It's worth trying to get into reverse or 1st if you're having trouble. I have done that successfully, but the trick I always did with my other Stangs is to shift into 5th gear and then back to reverse. That almost always allowed me to shift smoothly.

I've heard the k-member brace mentioned multiple times, and this is on my shortlist of mods.

As for the RPM think, I haven't noticed that - will pay more attention from now on.

p51mstg

As for noises coming from the drivetrain, I've noticed that my new 07V6 has no shortage of those. Maybe that's because they are new noises that I notice. More likely, however, it's because I haven't driven a manual Mustang for 2 years and forgot all the sounds that were normal.

Just like the people who have difficulty driving RWD, because everyone is accustomed to FWD nowadays, since few people have spent their entire lives driving sticks, it's hard to adjust, at first. Ask yourself how likely these noise are normal, because most of them could be.

DUG5SPD

I have the same issues, but does anyone have a weird noise from the engine while in reverse.