Just bought the truck I've wanted for over 3 years. It's a 1998 Chevy K2500 with the 6.5td, 5 speed NV4500 (I've already identified it by pictures from Google), and the rest of the 3/4 ton crap. I absolutely LOVE driving this truck, except for when it comes time to shift into 3rd gear....

The truck rolls through all the gears as fast as I can get through them, other than third. I have to pull the clutch in, let the engine return to idle, and basically gently persuade the shifter into 3rd. If I shift too quickly into 3rd, it grinds and sounds like I've missed my shift, but it does go in. When it grinds going in, it doesn't take long at all to get into it's pocket, it's just loud and annoying, and it sounds like it hurts.

None of the gears make noise. The clutch was replaced 2k miles ago by the previous owner, and when I asked about the noise he said, "I never noticed it... I've always shifted without the clutch." Did he eff it up?

I've asked my dad what his thoughts on it were, and he said that he thinks that's just the design of the transmission. I call BS on that, but just so I don't piss him off I bite my tongue when he says that.

I've tried double clutching it, but that only seems to make it worse.

Any suggestions anyone?

Travis

Sounds like a bad 3rd-gear synchro. There is a SLIM chance that you can slowly "teach" the synchro to work properly by matching engine speed to drive shaft speed (in the olden days, before synchros, we learned to shift trannys without using a clutch) and shifting slowly. Sometimes this will clean up the synchro ring--sometimes! If not, either learn the "shifting without a clutch" technique, or pull the trans and rebuild.

I've tried to match the engine RPM and transmission speed as best I can, but it still just grinds...

I have no problem with dropping the trans and doing a rebuild. I'd really prefer to do that if I can.

I'm not sure if this will help further pinpoint what the problem is, but I was sitting in the truck today with the clutch out (engaged), and pushed the stick towards 3rd gear: it started to grind really loud (I knew that it would do that, but I wanted to see how loud), and then I went down to fourth (and then the rest of the gears), and they were MUCH quieter (almost no noise relatively). Does that further suggest the third gear synchro is going out/toast?

I have seen alot of the gm trucks with bad 2 or 3rd gear scyrnos my 93 6.5 had a bad scyrno in 3 gear I would double clutch it and keep the rpms low and it would go in most of the time with out grinding.

Drop the trans and change all the blocking rings and be done with it. Make sure you run the proper oil or you will self destruct.