Synchro in 1st gear? Options

[Gatornapper]

Please forgive me in advance for asking a stupid question:

Did the new/original 914 tranny have synchro in 1st gear? Got mine with 60k original miles and it did not, nor have I ever driven one that did have a synchro 1st.

But somewhere I read something that said synchro in 1st went out quickly - and then synchro in 2nd would go out.

I have no synchro in 1st, but if it existed originally, that alone wouid be worth my rebuilding the tranny. Maybe Dr. Evil will do another one of his rebuild sessions at Scotty Burnett's?

Synchro in 2nd has a mind of its own. 1st to 2nd - it works 60% of the time fine. 30%, I get a tiny crunch. 10%, I get a bad crunch. Tried everything - nothing I do seems to affect whether it will crunch or not.

Downshifts into 2nd are another thing. 60% of the time, downshifts are perfect. Like a new tranny. 40% of the time, they are a horrible crunch. No idea why. Yes - clutch pressed all the way down.

No problems with any other synchros, tho 3rd, coming from 2nd, takes some additional physical effort to get into gear for some reason.

TIA,

GN

[Shivers]

"The 901 transmission has a synchro-mesh mechanism which allows the gears to be shifted when the car and the transmission are spinning at different speeds. There are 6 main components used in 1st gear. These are the slider, shift fork, synchro ring and brake band, dog teeth, and 1st gear. "

I don't shift into 1st moving. If it is being stubborn, I shift into 2nd then slip it into 1st. 50 year old trans may need some love.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/9...anny_repair.htm

[Gatornapper]

Wow. over 4 years as a 914'er and no one ever told me this. As I grew up driving stick with no synchro in 1st it was quite normal to me.

Thank you.

Now to figure when I can find time to rebuild tranny......will have to wait - 924 Turbo is my main focus now.

Will be so wonderful to drive my 914 with a synchro in 1st.........

GN

"The 901 transmission has a synchro-mesh mechanism which allows the gears to be shifted when the car and the transmission are spinning at different speeds. There are 6 main components used in 1st gear. These are the slider, shift fork, synchro ring and brake band, dog teeth, and 1st gear. "

I don't shift into 1st moving. If it is being stubborn, I shift into 2nd then slip it into 1st. 50 year old trans may need some love.

https://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/9...anny_repair.htm

[Superhawk996]

As I grew up driving stick with no synchro in 1st it was quite normal to me.

As a generalized statement, almost all transmissions since 70's have had syncrhronized 1st gear. Don't want to get into the age thing . . . (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Not aiming this at you but over the course of my career, I've had the opportunity to drive with hundreds if not almost a thousand people including automotive journalists, most can't drive a manual transmission worth a (IMG:style_emoticons/default/stromberg.gif) even if they think they can. There's a reason so many manual transmissions have bad gear and/or fried clutches every 50K miles.

1st gear is only used for getting off the line. . . that's it.

Trying to shift from 2nd to 1st at anything other than a brisk walk is folly. Even modern transmissions prefer to be shifted from 2nd to 1st when just barely rolling before the stop, even with a synchronized 1st gear.