Hard shifting 95

cntinuum

Registered User
Greetings, I am starting to work on a 1995 SC 5sd car I bought last Fall. It needs a lot of TLC. The first thing I am attempting to fix is making the car shift smoothly. I believe the clutch is not fully disengaging. I had the car up on jack stands to look for the bleeder on the transmission. I can't see it. I bought a Chilton's 83-97 bird manual and it was of no help to me.

Does the driver's side exhaust have to be dropped to get to the bleeder and inspection hole?

The shifter is is really sloppy on this car. Pulling the selector into 2nd gear causes the selector to hit the console trim and pull it away from the center upright trim. I looked thru the FAQ's about rebushing the selector and didn't find anything.

Links to other threads that talk to this issue or a picture of the bleeder and inspection plate would be great.
Thanks
Dave
 
Slave cyl bleeder, Where is it?

I have searched for 2 days on this site,and can't find any information on how to access the bleeder. I really would like to know so I take apart only what I need to to get to the bleeder. As I said in my first post, I had the car on stands and I couldn't see the bleeder or inspection plate.
Thanks,
-Dave
 
Trans. Bleeder

The Trans you have is a Mazda M5R2, The shifter is junk, B&M makes a good shifter for them, it's called the Ripper Shifter. You may have to drop the cat to reach the bleeder screw, My car has headers so I can't say for sure. I'd try to feel for it first, it's a tight fight. Have someone in the car to pump the peddle. It's most likely that the trans needs a rebuild, the syncro's are most likely wore out if its grinding going into gear.
 
You should be able to bleed it without pulling the exhaust. I just did mine a few weeks ago. The bleeder is on the drivers side about half way up the bell housing. Its right above the hydraulic line that runs into the bell.

Doug
 
THE BLEEDER IS ABOVE THE HOSE THAT RUNS INTO THE BELL HOUSING.

I DONT HAVE A PIC BUT ITS A ~~~~ TO GET TO.

IF THE CAR HAS BEEN SITTING FOR SEVERAL YEARS THEN THE FLYSWHEEL COULD BE RUSTED OVER. THIS WILL WEAR OFF AS YOU DRIVE BUT NEVER BE QUITE 100 PERCENT AGAIN.

THE SHIFTER IS A ~~~ FROM THE FACTORY. THERE ARE REBUILD KITS (ACTUALLY PART NUMBERS THAT OTHER MEMBERS HAVE POSTED UP HERE BUT SOME ARE NOT AVAILABLE ANYMORE) THE RIPPER SHIFTER IS THE BEST THING TO GET FOR THE CAR. I LOVE MINE.

YOU COULD CHANGE THE FLUID IN THE TRANS TO A BETTER FLUID. I USED GM SYNCHROMESH AND CLEARED UP SOME OF MY SHIFTING HARDNESS i WAS HAVING.

BUT......

UNFORTUNATLY SOME PROBLEMS CANNOT BEFIXED WITH FLUIDS IF THE SYNCHROS ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE AND NO FLUID WILL BRING THEM BACK.

AS FOR BLEEDING THE CLUTCH THE BEST WAY I HAVE FOUND IS A VACUUM BLEEDER. OR A PRESSURE BLEEDER ATTACHED TO THE CLUTCH RESERVIOR. WHILE YOU ARE PRESSURE BLEEDING ITS A GOOD IDEA TO ACTUATE THE CLUTCH ONCE OR TWICE TO GET TRAPPED AIR OUT OF THE SLAVE AND MASTER. IF USING A VACUUM BLEEDER JUST KEEP AN EYE ON RESERVIOR AND NEVER LET IT GO LOW I USUALLY RUN TWO TO THREE BOTTLES OF FLUID THROUGH THEM AND ALL IS GOOD AND FLUSHED ALSO.
 
Thanks for the 411

Thanks Tim, 90turbo1, Doug, evil1
I was looking to make sure the clutch was getting disengaged, as a first step. I believe the clutch is dragging, since it is difficult to shift into any gear. If this is part of the problem, it might buy me some time before I have to rebuild the trans. Replacing the clutch and related parts, I am prepared for. Rebuilding the trans and replacing the shifter, total cost, makes swapping to a T56 attractive. Hope someone gets this done so the rest of us can have a roadmap.

Reading about the shifter, it seems a number of people have found bolts loose as well as bushings being worn out. Thanks Tim, I had bookmarked that thread yesterday. I thought the Ripper Shifter was out of production, evil1.

When I replace the clutch assembly, I will have a close look at the trans. I got to rebuild my T10 in my 1963 Ford in 1968 and learned the value of grinding the gears, synco's and a couple 2nd gears later.
Thanks all!:)
-Dave
 
Thanks Tim, 90turbo1, Doug, evil1
I was looking to make sure the clutch was getting disengaged, as a first step. I believe the clutch is dragging, since it is difficult to shift into any gear. If this is part of the problem, it might buy me some time before I have to rebuild the trans. Replacing the clutch and related parts, I am prepared for. Rebuilding the trans and replacing the shifter, total cost, makes swapping to a T56 attractive. Hope someone gets this done so the rest of us can have a roadmap.

Reading about the shifter, it seems a number of people have found bolts loose as well as bushings being worn out. Thanks Tim, I had bookmarked that thread yesterday. I thought the Ripper Shifter was out of production, evil1.

When I replace the clutch assembly, I will have a close look at the trans. I got to rebuild my T10 in my 1963 Ford in 1968 and learned the value of grinding the gears, synco's and a couple 2nd gears later.
Thanks all!:)
-Dave


Send John an email I am sure he will treat you right, he now owns my previous 94 5 spd SC and is a stand up guy all around.

The ripper shifter is obsolete as you mentioned. Bill Evanoff on Supercoupeperformance.com may have one available for he purchased the last of the available stock from B&M.

-Tim
 
Ripper Shifter

Obsolete! I restored my car six years ago, so I didn't know. If I had a dollar for every time I heard the word OBSOLETE when chasing parts for my car I could buy my own country or restore another SC, Think I'll go for the country! Good luck and I hope all works out.
 
M5R2 Bleeder Pictures

Finally, I got some time to get back under the car. Yes the bleeder is directly above the Cat on the driver's side. I was going to use my vacumm bleeding tool. I might have to rethink this since the fitting is much larger than my tubing. Wish I would have bought a pressure bleeder. That would have been a much better method to change the fluid.

The Cat is in the way to see into the inspection hole. I would like to try the trick of depressing the slave, to purge more of the old fluid before adding more clean fluid and bleeding the system.

I did pump the clutch 30 times before I drove the car today and that seemed to help the shifting.

The picture is looking between the exhaust pipe and the car body.
-Dave
 

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Changed fluid, removed shifter

I bled the clutch master/slave system and replaced with new fluid. What a messy job. The shifting is better.

The shifter moves, I am guessing, close to 1/2" up and down. When taking the top boot off the trans, there is no bushing left. See http://www.sccoa.com/forums/showthread.php?p=879351#post879351 post #6 for pictures.

Can the bushings and the top cover and boot still be purchased? I am going to send a message to nascar john who had a post 01/2009 about the bushings.
Thanks,
-Dave
 
the ford dealers can still get the rebuild kits for our shifters. they have them listed for the ranger. the rubber boot/seal for the top they cant get. i used part of an old school brake res lid. cut it into form and installed it. so far 11,900 miles and no leaks and the shifter still works like new.
 
the ford dealers can still get the rebuild kits for our shifters. they have them listed for the ranger. the rubber boot/seal for the top they cant get. i used part of an old school brake res lid. cut it into form and installed it. so far 11,900 miles and no leaks and the shifter still works like new.

Thanks,
I give, what is an "old school brake res lid"?

What goes under the plate than has the boot molded to it?

Whatever was there is completely gone. In my last post, is a link to pictures I posted of what I found. Since you have been there, I would appreciate a little coaching on what I need to get to take up all the vacant room that is in the space now. Is all I need is the bushings? fast Ed says, the current part # is 1L2Z 7228 AA Ranger part #, for F5TZ-7228-A.
-Dave
 
yes the original plate has a boot molded to it. at autozone in the brake pump fliud lid area you can find some that the flex circles are close to the size of the boot needed for our shifters. they cost around $4. cut the circle flex part out and use an oil resistant resin to mold it to the original plate.

there are also 2 torsion rings one for on the bottom of the bushings and one for the top. you dont need either but they do help take up the slack for when your not holding the shifter.

make sure to use either sealant or very good loc-tite on the 3 hold down bolts or they will back out.
 
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