Hello there, I have a 2008 SS with 127,000 miles on it and has the F35 5 speed transmission. I'm having issues down shifting into 2nd gear from 3rd, many times I have to shift into 1st then back to 2nd to get it into gear. Now it's getting harder to shift down into first and when it goes I can hear the gears clunk into place. The strange part is when the tranny and engine is cold it works fine but as I drive and it heats up then gets worse. Another issue is the shifter moves hard left and right and reverse takes a lot of muscle to pull back into. I replaced the tranny fluid recently with the recommended OEM fluid which helped a little but still has the issue. There was a very small amount of metal debris in the fluid and magnet in the lower plug, but I don't think it was a crazy amount for that many miles. The fluid was still a transparent redish-orange which I think is a good sign. Is this a syncro issue or possibly just a cable shifter issue? Any help would be appreciated, I can't afford a new car or transmission right now so trying to fix it myself.

Thanks,
Keith

 

Bet the roll pin is cracked and will soon snap in half.

 

Is that in the lever that is on top of the transmission? Maybe that explains why 3rd gear seems like it is further left or right sometimes... It's tough to see where the roll pin is at, how hard are they to change out?

Thanks,
Keith

 

SS/TC's dont really have Roll pin issues.

OP it sounds like syncro's.

Try double clutching and see if that makes it easier to shift.

Do you rev match?

 

Yeah, I've tried double clutching and giving a little gas and it doesn't seem to matter. I usually have to move the shifter right to left until I can move the shifter forward into first then I can go back into second gear. It almost feels bound up until I can get it to pop into gear.

Keith

 

Interesting.

did you check your shift linkage to make sure it didn't come off?

with that many miles I would assume its got some wear in the shifter linkage since its plastic.

 

Yeah, I popped out the plastic piece in front of the shifter and the cables are clipped into the plastic bracket where they should be. The clips seem to be in the bracket snuggly without any slop. I did notice that moving the shifter side to side does make that bracket flex a some. Under the hood everything seems to be in place. Should I try to replace the roll pins? I searched on here an I see there is supposed to be a "how to" on replacing them but I have yet to find it.

Thanks,
Keith

 

might as well.

Look for a How To that is for the LSJ.

 

Ok, I found the how to thread. It will be next week till I can get to changing it out but I'll let everyone know if it helped or not.

Thanks
Keith

 

To me it sounds like a simple cable adjustment issue and with that many miles, might be worth looking into replacing the cables and clamps if a simple adjustment doesn't help.

 

How do you adjust the cables?

Thanks

 

Try this, and I meant by adjusting the clamps per say not the cables, although the cables could be stretched but haven't really heard of that.
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/08-1...inding-187224/

 

Ok, I'll give that a try too. Thanks

 

So Saturday I attempted to remove the roll pins and re-install new with no luck. I removed the fuse box assembly but couldn't get enough space to drive the pins out with a punch and hammer. I even tried from down under the car with no luck. I'm not sure how else to get enough room to swing a hammer hard enough to get them out. I did notice that the one shift lever with the counter weight moves up and down at least 1/8" which doesn't seem normal. The other lever on the transmission feels bound up, looks like the cable comes from bracket too low and angles upward to the shift lever. I pulled the cable out of the bracket and it still felt tight. How do you unhook the cables from the transmission levers? I would like to try to do that to see if there is any bind in the cable itself. Transmission is still shifting the same, it shifts pretty good but once it heats up it gets hard to down shift into 1st or 2nd.

Thanks,
Keith

 

that up and down play is normal

 

I figured out what the problem was! I started losing reverse last week and then lost it completely Sunday. I also noticed that it was getting harder and harder to shift so I popped off the connectors that attach the shifter cables to the transmission levers. The shifter would hardly move disconnected so that let me know that the cable that controls the gear groups was bound up and no good. It took a couple days to get the new cables from the GM warehouse but now that they are in it shifts like new. Thanks for your guy's help!

Keith

 

Glad it worked out! And glad you posted the fix!