I can't stand the noise (everlasting grinding sinsation of gears) and I get it alot... It doesnt seem to be a clutch problem my clutch is nice and stiff and my tranny is fine once in gear but usually from N to first gear or first to second I can shift its like the shifter hit a wall... Most commonly happens when sitting at a redlight in N and trying to put car in first gear, it feals like theirs no gap for first gear only a chunk of metal in the way...

I get that too...

The gears are notchy and hard to engage.

Alot of posts about this...

Do our trannys suck or what?

our trannies are actually pretty good. You have worn out syncros and that's causing the problem. Try taking your foot off the clutch once you're stopped, then press it down again and see if it will go in.

adam

You have worn blocking rings. The rings keep the sychros in spec and allow smooth engagement. You'll notice (if this has just started) that when the car gets warmed up a little and/or the case gets warmer the engagement is easier. The rings expand enough to put the syncho back into minimal spec. Since this is getting to be a popular question, I'd check if anybody could find a cool trans place that will just match the brass rings that go in there, 9 times out of 10, the synchro will go back into spec. I know since Borg-Warners T-5's are really abused by guys around me, they can find just the rings and split the case and repair everything for about 100 bux. The seals and bearings could be had from the dealer, but I'm not sure how much. The input shaft bearing bothers some of you guys too. I don't think Chrys. has a fix for that. Best bet is to check part numbers against the Neon's case and see if they get a different input shaft bearing. If you have gears that pop out, it's usually dog teeth that are worn or synchro is wat out of spec. Get another tranny, b/c the gears that go on the shaft are not cheap, and they are a PITA to get on and off the shaft w/o damaging something. Keep in mind that if you have to have a jig to keep our case flopping around during assembly. If you don't it makes for another PITA job. I hope some of my experience is answering some of these questions.

So instead of replacing the whole tranny or the syncros your suggesting replacing the brass rings around the syncros.. interesting.

How much to trannys go for anyway?