Bought a t56 online, need help

[my95z28]

Hey guys,

Disclaimer: Sorry for the book!!lol

So I bought a t56 online from a moderator on Ls1tech. He has 87 itraders, all positive, so I felt comfortable buying from him. He had a t56 with 22k miles on it since rebuild, pro 5.0 short throw, new stock clutch, flywheel, master, slave, and crossmember. I got it all for $1200. Note, Slave and master DIDN'T go in. Original are working great, why chance it. Trans gets here, put it in, put it in reverse to back out, let the clutch out and BANG griiiiiiiiiind. WTF!?!? Yank it out of gear, calm myself down, put it back in, same thing happens. So, after trying to use reverse I came to these conclusions.


-When you put it in reverse, it feels like it only goes about halfway in to gear
-If you try to let the clutch out without pressure on the shifter, it bangs out of gear
-If I keep pressure on second gear and sllllowly let out the clutch, it will pop really hard and try to buck out, but the pressure of my hand shoves it into gear. After I get it into gear, all is well.
-If I put it into 5th and then reverse REALLY fast, sometimes I can get it all the way into gear. This is pretty rare tho.
-ZERO problems in any other gear. Rest of the trans feels great

Now, I've been doing everything I can to avoid using reverse for the past week. He has been trying to find something else wrong the whole time.

-First, he thought my hydraulics had air in them. I told him, NOTHING was changed on the hydraulics, but just to be sure, I found flat ground, put the car in 1st, clutch in, and revved it to 5k. Didn't move an inch. Okay, clutch is disengaging, but just to be sure there isn't air in the line, I pumped the clutch 15 times and tried reverse.... no dice.

-Next he thought my reverse lockout solenoid was acting up. Verified it was working correctly by shutting the car off, trying for reverse, won't go cause its locked out. Turned key to the on position, lockout solenoid works correctly, now letting me into gear.

-He still thinks it might be faulty, so I check the fuse under the hood, thats fine. Still thinks it might be bad, so I replace the solenoid with my old one, still does the exact same thing, like I expected, since the solenoid only effects the gate, not actually getting into gear.

-Re-adjusted the shifter stops to ensure they weren't causing issues, even tho 1,3,5 all work fine.

So, I pm him telling him all this, he responds asking where the clutch engages. I respond almost exactly the middle of the overall travel of the clutch pedal, he responds saying I need to bleed the hydraulics. WTF?!?! No, I already ensured that that aren't any issues with the hydraulics.


Now, anyone have any other suggestions that it could be? I'm 95% sure its just a worn reverse gear, but he says his buddy he bought it from said it was fine, so it must be now. So, anyone have any suggestions on what else it could be? Or how to deal with this guy? I'm thinking about just telling him to refund me $300 so that I can get it fixed. I mean, I sure as hell wouldn't have bought the trans for that amount if I knew reverse was ****ed

[prorac1]

That sounds reasonable to me. $300 for your trouble and the repair sounds fair to me. Eric L

[s.reef]

Seems to me hes not trying to screw you....at least answering you emails and so forth. I would let him make the decision. I would take it somewhere to get inspected first off find out whats really wrong and get a quote. Then you can give him the quote see if hes comfortable with it if not you can ship it back to him and refund your money. Thats the problem with buying used stuff online especially big heavy items...there is a very thin line to walk. Take it from his side as well, it could of worked perfectly for him or he could of bought it in perfect condition, how does he know that this buyer didnt break something or is trying a fast one on him.

[1BADAIR]

reverse can be fixed without removing the trans. flip the slider and replace the brass. the gear may or maynot need to be replaced

[nascarnate326]

reverse can be fixed without removing the trans. flip the slider and replace the brass. the gear may or maynot need to be replaced

Man hes going to feel good reading that.

[my95z28]

Can anyone confirm that is 100% internally trans? I mean, I think that I have tested everything that can be causing issues on the outside.

[1BADAIR]

if it will go into the other gears at idle its not clutch related

[prorac1]

Look it up on the Camaro board. Ive heard of people having that same problem a million times on there. Larry is right. Eric L

[98blackbeauty]

I had someone program my t56 to delete skip shift had same sounding problem 2nd and reverse were screwed up. reset program a ok. Double check your skip shift and reverse sol. are pluged in correctly. they are close enough to plug in wrong.

[Fbomb]

You can program skip shift out (in the computer)? I know mine's got the resistor mod done but it was done before I got the car along with the short-throw. I also checked to see if the reverse lockout solenoid was plugged in correctly because it's very difficult to put it into reverse, sometimes second is kinda hard too...grinds if I put it too far left when coming back from first.

[nascarnate326]

Kyle still has skip shift on his car.

[ThreeHonks]

So Kyle, any progress on this? What did you decide to do with the trans