for about the last month or so I have been noticing that when i shift into fifth gear it grinds at first and then goes in smoothly. Well saturday I went to springfield to order 2 more of my rims and on the way home i was in fifth the whole time and it drove fine. I stopped at a buddies house in Delevan and when I left his house my car wouldnt stay in fifth gear. It will shift in to gear but as soon as i let out the clutch it pops right back out. If I try to hold it in it grinds. Well along this problem, I was at a bday party and when I came out all my tranny fluid was on the ground. I looked under and the fifth gear housing is where it had all leaked out from because I noticed a steady drip coming from the side of it. I have another casing but is the problem just my syncro? I am getting a new syncro from the dealer today but does anyone think its something other. I havent taken it apart yet but just figured I get your input.

I think the problem _was_ just the syncro, and now it's a bit worse. Hopefully you get lucky and there's no severe gear damage. You should document the rebuild and post pictures in this thread. Would be very informative.

Double check that your 5th gear end nut is still tight up. I had that back off in my galant tranny(and I had the same 5th gear problem) and it ended up blowing my tranny.

http://www.geocities.com/qwik93awd/Vfaq/shifter.htm

This indicates to me that your tranny is toast. fluid generally doesn't leak out like this unless there is a hole that isn't supposed to be there.

the tranny is not toast. The fifth gear housing just cracked. I have another brand new one sitting in the garage to replace it. Also the end nut is brand new and we crimped it on both sides so there is no way it could have came loose, although I will double check. The syncro and possibly the fifth gear bearings are shot. I just wanted to see if anyone else ever had this problem b4. All other gears shift fine, even reverse.

as far as pictures go I will post them when the process is completed. Most likely this weekend.

^^^ Agreed. If there's a steady drip of fluid, you've got more problems than the synchros.

This is a bad statement! There is always a way for it to loosen. Vibration, daily driving and such will make it back off. Did you tork it to specs when you installed it?

yeah, everything was done correclty. When you crimp the nut it is like prongs going down on the shaft so it would be really difficult for it to have came loose. Not saying it isnt possible though. Also as far as the dripping of the fluid goes. It was a used fifth gear housing that I got from Josh ( slopony) and it could have been weak metal. I talked to a few older car junkies and they agree that it sounds like the fifth gear bearings are shot and that the syncro is deffinitly junk. The syncro that I used only had teeth in three areas where the syncro from the dealership has teeth all the way around. No need for an argument though We will just have to find out once I get the cover off in the next day or two!!!

Ok, well, good luck with that.