Your question will be difficult to answer unless you can be more discriptive about the symptoms.

Does it grind and crunch? If so, then the syncronizers* are probably bad.

If that's the case, learn how to double clutch and "heel-toe". That method manually syncronizes* the transmission.


*spell checker malfunction

 

I agree with John. If it grinds, then your synchros are probably to blame. It's a time consuming job. Basically it's a tranny rebuild. The gears are probably fine, but you need to take everything apart to change the synchros. Synchros wear. It happens. They're made of a very soft metal. I believe it's copper. A much less expensive and less time consuming job would be to, as John mentioned, try double-clutching. When you want to downshift from 3rd (or any gear for that matter), while you're in 3rd, push in the clutch, drop it into neutral, let out the clutch, tap throttle enough to kick RPM's up a bit (1500-2000 RPM's is fine. Higher than that is ok, but not necessary), push in clutch, then pull the car down into 2nd. Once you've done it a few times it only takes the blink of an eye to do it. It's better for the tranny and the clutch anyway. 1st gear is so low that there really isn't a need to downshift into 1st while still moving forward. I double clutch whenever I downshift and I don't have problems with synchros or clutch. It makes downshifting much smoother. My Z32 doesn't like to drop into 1st until I'm almost stopped either, so don't worry about that. 3rd to 2nd should work easily though.

 

Yeah double-clutch it will be much easier on the tranny and until you can get it fixed it will be a temporary solution to the problem (hopefully). Also you might want to rev match alittle more when you double clutch because 1500-2000RPM in the downshift is going to give a rough shift in your car.

 

how do you say that?

 

If you are running a Nissan tranny they are notorious for worn out bearings. Most people think its the synchros,but 9 times out of 10 it's the bearings. The gears run parallel to each other, so if one ***** a few thousands it will not go in gear. I belive that is your problem, Soloution: Have it rebuilt by a reputable trans shop. Believe me =, don't take it to joe blow down the street. That can screw up your tranny even worse.For the record Ive torn up 6 transmissions in Nissan trucks and Z's. I have only had one synchro replaced for second gear. The rest where worn out bearings