Gear shifting questions

[The Roar In The Night]

Hey all,

Told ya I'd have questions - time to begin!

This relates to the shifter. The 2001 RT/10 I recently acquired has (documentation claimed) a short throw shifter. I am finding a couple of issues with the shifter, I'll try and describe them all below so someone can tell me what is up (which may just be me)

1. There is not the merest hint of a "spring to center" horizontally, if I move it to the 1st to 2nd axis, it will just stay there, for example. I find this makes it tricky especially on downshifts from 5th say, as I can't tell if I'm going to hit 4th or 2nd (which would be ugly.) So far, I have to pull it all the way left and then move right to make sure I'm not hitting the low 2 gears.

2. Horizontal movement is pretty stiff, and moves in notches. I don't mind the notches so much, but should the horizontal movement be stiff? I'd say it's close to actually putting it into a gear to move along the horizontal axis.

3. Sometimes in coming out of a gear, I have no horizontal movement at all. Most noticeable for me coming out of 5th (downshifts are where the majority of the issues lie for me, other than occasionally going into 5th rather than 3rd which is non-problematic as I'm not doing anything dramatic in the car just yet and is just disappointing in the engine-noise department.)

Of course, the question of stiffness and hardness is relative (said the actress to the bishop) so any of the above may just be me and my inexperience with Vipers, and / or this type of gear shift. I've been browsing and reading and searching, and I see there are possible things that could be causing it that are more than just me - e.g. could be the transmission fluid (since it's bought used, don't know when that was last changed), the type of shifter (it may not even be a short throw, may just be a short stick put on the stock, and I hear the stock can be pretty unpleasant), or some sort of fault or problem developing in the shifter.

I'd welcome folks feedback on what thoughts come to mind from what I've described.

PS - I'm not very mechanically inclined (flame suit on) though I am sure I'll be getting more so over time of ownership Right now I'm not even sure how to get the shifter cover off safely to find out what the shifter looks like under there without tearing something up so that I can identify just what IS installed, tips on that welcome also, searches didn't show anything on such a basic step during guides on changing out shifters.

 

[LifeIsGood]

You can use the info from these two threads to get the center console off.

GenII Dash Removal

Fixed my cracked center console

I'm not sure that you'l be able to tell what kind of shifter you have by looking at the top of it, but this is what it looks like under the center console...

You must be registered for see images

 

[The Roar In The Night]

Thankee LifeIsGood, good info! Reading and saving those links now.

 

[AZTVR]

What you are experiencing is not normal, IMHO. It should self center. I have had OEM, Hurst and B&M, and they all worked as you would expect. The B&M did not go to the 3-4 position from the 1-2 position with as much force as I wanted; so, I changed the centering spring for that.

 

[The Roar In The Night]

Thanks AZTVR, I didn't think it sounded quite right from the forum searches but wanted to see what you all thought with these particular symptoms. I'll get it checked out and maybe swap it out for an aftermarket of my choice anyway - which was your favorite out of the Hurst and B&M btw? I've seen preferences both ways of course while reading up on switching out the OEM, just curious on your thoughts having personally tried those variations!

 

[Dan Cragin]

This is a common problem with the T56 transmission and 95% of the time has nothing to do with the shifter. There is a shifting shaft (about 30 inches long) that works directly off the shifter. If it gets just slightly bent it makes shifting heavy and will not allow the shifter to return to center. What is so frustrating about this is that the transmission works perfectly otherwise. You need to do a teardown to fix it. The problem is that is you go to that extent you might as well replace the bearings and synchros. Most likely your car has more than 25k miles and has had more than one owner.

Once fixed, it will shift like butter. If you do not do the repair odds are the transmission will work just fine otherwise.

Hope this helps!

 

[AZTVR]

Thanks AZTVR, I didn't think it sounded quite right from the forum searches but wanted to see what you all thought with these particular symptoms. I'll get it checked out and maybe swap it out for an aftermarket of my choice anyway - which was your favorite out of the Hurst and B&M btw? I've seen preferences both ways of course while reading up on switching out the OEM, just curious on your thoughts having personally tried those variations!

Dan is the man to listen to as far as your issue goes. To answer your question, I really found the Hurst and the B&M to be very similar. The B&M was better after I changed the spring, and it is easier to install and has no clearance issues. The Hurst comes very close to the ashtray surround, underneath. The B&M version isn't in production now, though. One of our supporting vendors GTSR-001 is having a similar version made. Knowing about the machine shop guy who is doing the work, it will be a quality piece. It remains to be seen how it "feels;" although, you can't get any better than what the stock transmission is capable of.

 

[The Roar In The Night]

Yep, definitely more than 25K miles, she's had a life prior to me! Over 56K on it in fact, so that's quite a bit for one of these cars from what I've seen. Thanks Dan for the info, that does indeed sound like it matches what I'm experiencing, and it sure isn't shifting like butter right now and that sounds like it would be nice to experience TY AZTVR on your personal experiences with the shifters, clearance issues are definitely a factor and would play a part in my decision, so I think I will hang on a bit and see how GTSR-001's version comes out once it gets put to use in the real world and some folks can comment on the feel - meantime I'll contemplate the teardown too. Anyone think that might be worth it on a car with that many miles anyway, to look for any other issues that might not be visible yet?

 

[Fatboy 18]

This is a common problem with the T56 transmission and 95% of the time has nothing to do with the shifter. There is a shifting shaft (about 30 inches long) that works directly off the shifter. If it gets just slightly bent it makes shifting heavy and will not allow the shifter to return to center. What is so frustrating about this is that the transmission works perfectly otherwise. You need to do a teardown to fix it. The problem is that is you go to that extent you might as well replace the bearings and synchros. Most likely your car has more than 25k miles and has had more than one owner.

Once fixed, it will shift like butter. If you do not do the repair odds are the transmission will work just fine otherwise.
Hope this helps!

Well I never knew that! Thanks Dan, this may be my problem? Even with a new Hurst shifter the centering springs are having a hard time getting the shifter to return. My cars up to 60K mileage.

 

[The Roar In The Night]

Hey someone from the UK! Awesome. I'm UK born and bred, from the NE of Scotland, only been over in Texas the last 10 years. I think owning a Viper in the UK would be a great experience as I imagine they are even more rare over there Sorry for the sidetrack, now back to the useful information.

 

[Fatboy 18]

Hello and welcome to the VCA