Synchro or Clutch?
 

Okay, my car is new to me, so please help me out...

My car seems to be hard to engage into gear. (5.0 5-sp '88)
Third seems particularly difficult, but I have all gears, and the car seems to drive fine. By engaging rough, I don't really mean that it's next to impossible to engage, only that it may sometimes take me backing out of gear selection, and trying again. If I push hard, It'll go in. It doesn't slip out of gear, but it does seem to have pretty abrupt gear engagement. I live on a slight incline, and it's really tough to feather the clutch to avoid spraying rocks when leaving the garage.

Synchro?
Gears?
Clutch?
Shut up and drive, Joe?

Help!

Shut up and drive joe. J/K

Need a little more info but from what you are saying about problems feathering the clutch up an inclne it sounds like it might be just your clutch. If your clutch cable set up is still factory try and pull up on the clutch pedal and then pressing it all the way to the floor. You should hear a ratcheting sound from the quadrant adjusting this might help you out a little.
Try that and let us know how long it has been since the clutch was replaced.
Do the gears grind when you try and put it in gear?

Ha ha.

Right now, the car is covered in red paint dust, and bondo. (I'm making the UglyFast88 just Fast88) So, I really am not going to be able to try it until the end of next week. Anyway, the gears do not grind at all, just seems to be a little hard to shift into gear. The guy who owned it before me had it for 3 1/2 years, and didn't drive it in the winter. It had a new clutch in late '00, (have reciept) and he only put about 15,000 miles on the car in the total time he owned it. So, what- maybe 10,000 miles tops? I'll try the adjustment, I know that I have to bury the clutch peday to the floor to get it to shift cleanly... Or as cleanly as it will...

Thanx!

If you have to push the clutch all the way to the floor to get it to shift you need to try the adjusment I mentioned. If that does not fix it it is either your clutch or the quadrant. The quadrant is made of plastic and has teeth on it that will strip out and cuase you to have to push the clutch all the way to the floor just to shift.

good luck and let us know what happens

Hey Charlie-

I was out of town for a few days...

Anyway, how do I check the quadrant? Can I get to it from the passenger compartment? If so, I'd like to do it now, because I've
got it apart inside right now...

Thanx!

(It's not so ugly anymore!)

Not sure what you mean when you have it all apart but to check to see if your quadrant is working OK just put your foot under the clutch pedal and lift the pedal up. It will lift about an inch or 2. Then just push the clutch pedal all the way to the floor. You should hear a ratcheting sound as this is the quadrant adjusting itself. If you do not hear the ratcheting sound the quadrant is bad. If it does make the ratcheting sound try and drive it or just let it roll a little and see if it is letting the clutch loose when you have the clutch pedal pushed in about half way to the floor.
Doing what I mentioned above will only work if your car still has the factory quadrant.

If it did not make difference then check your clutch cable to see if it has stretched out. Last if none of this is it you are most likely looking at a worn out clutch that needs to be replaced. The mileage on the clutch does not mean much as the old owner could have rode the clutch, let it rev very high when shifting etc........

My clutch was doing the same thing so I swapped in my ford racing cable and quad from my old car that got smashed fixed it what is was on my car was the self adsr. wasnt working

It's really simple. Just do a double clutch. This way your synchronizing your tranny to your engine. If you can shift it, it's your synchro.

How to do a double clutch? push the clutch, put your shifter in neutral, release the clutch, push the clutch and put it in gear. It should not take more than 2 second to do it.

Thanks for the info- I did the adjustment, didn't really do much. Didn't hear any racheting, but I have to find out if it's still OEM. I'll try the double clutching next time I drive.

Thanks again!