Re: 4KCSQ Hard Shifting

[Sam Strano <Strano@ncentral.com>]

At 11:53 AM 1/9/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I've owned an '87 4KCSQ for about a month now and was wondering if the 
>shifting behaviour I'm experiencing is normal.  When the car is cold it 
>is rather difficult to shift.  What I mean is it is physically hard to 
>put into gear.  When the transmission warms up it shifts very nicely.  As 
>well I noticed again when the car is cold that the clutch does not seem 
>to disengage immediately in conjunction with depressing the clutch pedal, 
>there is about a one second delay between the two operations.  I 
>can see these two things being related.  Any ideas on this, a 
>sticky release bearing, air in the system.?  Any comments 
>would be appreciated.
>
>TIA
>Todd
>'84 944
>'87 4KCSQ


Todd, 

The things you are experiencing are fairly normal, however they can be
helped!  The reason it's hard to shift when cold is simple.  Your car uses
gear oil in the transaxle and the stuff is real thick 75/90 weight. It acts
like syrup when it's cold.  The thing to do here is replace the gear oil
with Redline MTL or Manual Transmission Lube.  The Redline is synthetic
which lets it pump and flow much easier in the cold.  Synthetics are also
slicker, but the beauty of MTL is that it has addititves in it that help the
syncros to mesh.  Look in the archives for more info on Redline.

The problem with the clutch is more than likely the fluid.  Clutches use
brake fluid in their hydraulic system.  If the fluid becomes contaminated
with water or dirt it causes trouble.  Water is more easily compressed than
brake fluid, so when you push the pedal you must first squeeze the water
down until you get enough pressure to move the pieces. If there is dirt then
you are adding the extra effort of moving mud to the equation.  Not to
mention it'll tear the seals up, eventually leaving you with no clutch whatever.
If you change gear oils and bleed out all the old brake fluid for the clutch
and replace it with Castrol LMA (Dot 4--More resistant to moisture) you'll
notice vastly improved results!

Sam Strano  5000tq
Strano's Foreign Car
strano@ncentral.com
Brookville PA