Please help with a Trans problem thats driving me crazy

[LuckyWinner]

So I have a TKO600, had problems shifting into 1st and 2nd (but no grinding). reverse, 3rd and 4th and 5th no problem. Someone told me to open it up and check out to make sure everything was tight and the rails were aligned. When I opened it up.....low and behold one of the rails (the one 1st and 2nd) looked to be lower so I adjusted it and thought I was off the happy land. Started the car....tried to put and reverse and now reverse grinds. 1st and 2nd just as hard (but not grinding). Any suggestions? I didnt ever move the rail for reverse. I need a beer.

[LuckyWinner]

ok so shifting a little better now, will go into second easy as long as I'm about at a stop, if im not almost stopped just wont go in...no grinding at all, just wont go in. Could it be something binding in the output shaft? I only used 2 of the 3 metal trans raisers i got from Forte....the 3rd seemed to high, but now looking at how the drive shaft comes out to the axle I'm wondering if I should put the 3rd in.

[CraigS]

I am thinking maybe your clutch is not releasing completely. "Some" of your symptoms indicate this. If the clutch is dragging a little when at a stop the synchros will keep 1-5 from engaging. But reverse doesn't have a synchro so it grinds. When you start from a stop how far up does your clutch pedal move before the clutch starts to engage.

[LuckyWinner]

drained fluid....very pretty with the shinny metal flakes, but not a good sign

[smithbks]

Lucky,

I have the same setup and experienced the same problems. However, during my gokart this weekend I found you have to give it a little bit of force to put it in gear. It doesn't grind for me, but once I started being firm with the shifting all was well. I have read that these transmissions take 500 miles to break in and can feel like a bear until then. I opened mine up too but didn't have the metal flakes. Sorry about that