I have a muncie 4 speed in my 86 gt, and its starting to have some issues. The clutch was replaced about 5k miles ago, and may or may not be the issue. It has ran fine since the clutch was replaced but recently it has been feeling off. In reverse I release the clutch and it give me nothing nothing engages like a rocket. The forward gears are better but it seems to be getting floaty on the clutch with erratic engagement and disengagement points on the clutch. I am fairly sure the second gear synchro is about to join the choir invisible and third is still in church praying for a miracle. Should i repair the 4 speed have it rebuilt new clutch aluminum flywheel and an lsd, or go with an economy kit from Archie and get the f40. It will probably come out to around the same either way but im not sure how much it will cost to just have the 4 speed rebuild with a new clutch the aluminum flywheel and lsd are just ideas. I do need to have this done at a shop due to school I am staying with family until i finish so the hoa here would poop a brick if i ripped it down in the driveway. Access to the garage is currently a no go. I need some opinions from those with experience with these transmissions as i never got beyond changing a clutch out the inner workings of a transmission are powerd by pfm.

I only read half your post, because I can't stand huge paragraphs. But, in the first half, it sounds like you're having trouble actually getting the trans to go into gears? Or is it you can feel it slide into gears for sure but when you let the clutch out nothing happens?

My initial thought is shifter cables, but that would only be true if you were trying to find gears and weren't. Cables stretch over time, and this allows the shifter to not connect with the trans anymore.

my opinion based off what you wrote.

O, something else to try to make sure it is or is not shift cables. You can manually shift the trans on the trans, just have someone shift it into first while you watch the trans, there are two mechanism's, one is your up and down (like first and second), and the other is your side to side (like 1-3) you can grab those with your hands and put it in gear yourself once you learn which is which from outside.

It sounds more like a hydraulic issue to me. Maybe a very tiny leak somewhere letting air in, but not letting fluid out? Have you tried bleeding it? If the gears are going bad for sure, you might want to look at just getting another used 4 speed, or converting to a newer, but used, Getrag 5 speed. Switching to the 5 speed will still get you some better MPG on the highway and such, but can be done much cheaper than the F40.

I'll check the hydraulics, and i totally forgot about moving the gears manually at the transmission, and i will go try that now and see what happens. The issue is mostly just strange clutching feels off or floaty. I know my hydro line is rusty should have replaced that when the clutch was done, my own fault there. It will on occasion fail to go into gear only first, and usually a restart will fix it.

[This message has been edited by Macs86GT (edited 07-24-2011).]

Almost certainly hydraulics, and you probably need to replace the hard line.

Thats what I'm thinking i can move the gears manually by moving the levers on the transmission. I'll order up a new line and get to replacing it. Not that an f40 would be a bad idea either, but a line and some fluid is much cheaper.

[This message has been edited by Macs86GT (edited 07-24-2011).]