I had them too and I finally may have an answer as to why you may grind going into reverse.. It's something unbelievably simple and yet.. terribly stupid...

reverse has no synchro.

I guess this was to prevent the car from going into reverse at high speed, but there's no synchro on that gear. I'm sure all of you knew this... but I certainly didn't until today.

shyt, i still remember the first day i had the car...had no idea how to put t in reverse....hahaha ended up having t let it roll down the street....hahaha how lame!!

LMAO.... well i think there's only 2 ways in the world to getinto reverse... 1 is push it down and shift... 2nd is jsut shift normally...

I had them too and I finally may have an answer as to why you may grind going into reverse.. It's something unbelievably simple and yet.. terribly stupid...

reverse has no synchro.

I guess this was to prevent the car from going into reverse at high speed, but there's no synchro on that gear. I'm sure all of you knew this... but I certainly didn't until today.

Ahhh, I didn't know that either. There was only one time that I experienced grinding while in reverse, but there was a few times that my reverse gear wouldn't engage at all. I had the clutch fully depressed, then gently slided the shifter into reverse and gave it a little gas while slowly releasing the clutch, and nothing. :confused: It felt like the car was in neutral, with no gears engaged and the engine revving freely. Could this problem be related to the lack of a synchro for the reverse gear as well?

synchro's are only needed for a moving gear change, as you should be at rest when selecting reverse theres no need for one.
I've found if you don't rush shifting into reverse it will go in every time.

It did that to me a few times even when I didn't rush shifting into reverse, and yes, I always shift into reverse at rest. I have no problems with gears 1-6; it seems that the reverse gear is the only problem. Maybe I have a bad tranny?

Has anyone tried shifting it into 2nd first?

It's a habit I picked up a long time ago and it's always worked on every car I've owned that was difficult to get into Reverse or 1st.

LMAO.... well i think there's only 2 ways in the world to getinto reverse... 1 is push it down and shift... 2nd is jsut shift normally...
No, some cars (like volvos), you pull up a lever and shift.

This will go into the long list of endless valuable information that this forum has provided me. Thanks.

you are right.. good thing I got it the first time..ha ha :eek:

I don't think there was ever a MT made on any vehicle that has a syncro for reverse. I had my snycros go bad in second and third gear in an old Jeep Wrangler I once had. What a nightmare to shift!

All Rx-7's from 1989 on and all Rx-8's have syncronized reverse gears. The reverse synco ring does wear more because in all forward gears in it actually spinning backwards.

I don't think there was ever a MT made on any vehicle that has a syncro for reverse. I had my snycros go bad in second and third gear in an old Jeep Wrangler I once had. What a nightmare to shift!


Lambogini 350/400 GT had a syncro reverse.
later Lambo front engine cars probably did also.