been googling and searching the forums for a bit now and can't seem to find a thread with the same issue i'm having.

sometimes when i'm completely stopped especially when going from neutral to reverse or even first, but mostly into reverse, it will not shift into gear unless i do something i really hate...while pushing into first or reverse (lightly, not hard) and slowly release the clutch, you can feel the gears line up and go into gear. also while driving down the road and shifting from 1st to 2nd etc, its sometimes feels like a *crunch* feeling getting it into gear no real noise and its not the same as grinding gears. not a happy feeling. any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

2005 cooper S, 89000 miles. original clutch from what i can tell

 

The "going into reverse" issue wouldn't even raise an eyebrow with me. I have owned so many Japanese cars that I have come to expect it. Just seems to be a feature of their gearbox design. Owned lots of German cars, too, and although much less frequent, feathering the clutch while slotting it into reverse is not uncommon. The 1-2 upshift being notchy could be as serious as synchros and clutch wear or as routine as lube of the shifter cables. Since they are both happening at the same time, my money is on clutch wear. Get any slipping while accelerating up a grade in 6th?

 

This only happens on occasion. It is my daily driver that i will drive everywhere, in love with my car, is that bad? anyways, i may have said it backwards, i have to feather the clutch for reverse more than 1st, but it does occur. but I do get the stiff shifting through all of the gears and sometimes i feel like i can feel the gears line up through the gear stick, this is my first manual I've owned and I've driven a couple other manuals once (mustang and Honda) but never really felt that i don't think, then again the mustang was a super snake (brand new) and my boss's and was more worried about damaging it then driving it lol. back on topic. seriously doubt anyone ever lubed the linkage so i may do that this weekend, the Bentley manual has a nice write up on how to get to all of the parts. unfortunately i'm not experienced enough to know what clutch slippage feels like, i'm thinking i may have that because when i accelerate hard sometimes, not every time, there is power surge feeling, almost like i'm pressing the clutch just enough to disengage it and re-engage it several times real fast. I have bleed the brakes and slave. also on my tensioner i can not see the first hole at all, i put the new belt on when i put the pulley on 9 months ago (slipping belt causing surge maybe)((NEED A DAMN BOOST GAUGE)). couldn't see the first hole then but i used the belt recommended by the forums. (i think my tensioner is bad, rattles REAL bad on hard acceleration but you can only hear it with windows down and passing houses or fences so the sound echos back to you.)

 

Well, time to check basics. Oil level in gearbox, pedal free play, condition of the shifter cables (make sure the outer sheaths haven't split), etc. To test clutch slippage, try going up a grade at around 40mph in 6th gear, and watch tach/listen to RPMs if they climb and the car's speed is unaffected, you're probably looking at a new clutch.

 

just to verify, when you say grade you are talking about up hill right? Yea i've been checking all that stuff when you mentioned the shift linkage, don't know why I hadn't thought of that before and there are tons of threads on that subject. i'll have to check the other things through out the week. now i've gotta find a hill, if that is what your talking about.

 

Yup, a long slight uphill, just to keep "drag" on the car as you accelerate.

 

This is not a clutch issue, this is a synchronizer issue.

You described a feeling of the "gears" lining up as you slowly let out the clutch and it slipping into gear. Let me offer a small bit of info. The gears in a manual transmission are constant mesh helical cut gears, they are always in contact with each other. What you are feeling lining up are the dog engagement teeth to the synchronizer teeth as the shift collar comes over the two of them.

As a semi-truck driver, our manual transmissions do not have synchronizers and this sensation happens all the time, requiring me to let the clutch up just a hair to rotate the splines into alignment.

The teeth have sharp pointy ends when they're new, this allows them to slide into place even when they are not rotating because there are no flat edges for them to hang up on. Over time, the sharp edges become more dull and there becomes a situation where the two sets of teeth can literally butt heads and wont go until one of them turns a little, this is why this only happens when you are at a complete stop, it is the only possible time at which both sets of engagement teeth could be stationary. This is why you only notice it in first and reverse.

I've been inside manual transmissions before, I've seen how they work in motion, but it can be a difficult concept to understand without visual aids, so here's a visual aid!



The good news is, obviously your clutch is completely disengaging, or it wouldn't be able to come to a complete halt for this to occur. The bad news is, it's a wear issue that will get worse over time and will require a hard-part rebuild eventually. How long depends on how nice you are to it.

That being said, 80k miles seems a bit early to be having hard-part issues with a transmission. Judging by your post, you aren't the original owner. It could be gathered that the previous owner(s?) maybe had speed shifted without the clutch a bit too often or had poor clutch habits during shifting over the beginning of the car's life leading to a slightly premature wear situation. But it is definitely synchronizers and possibly the dog engagement teeth on the gears themselves (although less likely because synchronizers go first, and in turn, cause the dog teeth to wear.) Your options are to attack the rebuild early, before total failure, and possibly only have to replace the synchronizers... or to wait until complete transmission failure and have to replace all the guts.

 

well that's not exactly what one wants to hear about their beloved Mini or any car for that matter :(. anyways, I've looked for rebuild kits in the past for the 6 speed getrag transmission with no luck. anyone know a good source for these parts mentioned? the problem is really isn't all that bad, yet. so i'd like to do preventive maintenance and go ahead and fix it. i drive this thing all over and would hate to be left on the side of the road hours from home. there is some ford that uses getrag transmissions as well and i almost want to say the same transmission so possible to get parts from ford?