Trouble shifting into 1st/reverse

Heyo all,

I’ve got a 99 3.4 5spd with about 199k on her. She’s absolutely wonderful but I’ve been having an issue recently that I can’t seem to figure out. When starting from a stop it feels like it’s impossible to shift into 1st (sometimes reverse too). Like there’s a immovable object blocking my shifter. To get around this I either double clutch, or put it into second then back to first which seems to let it slide into gear. All the other gears seem totally fine though, and if I keep rolling there’s no issue most of the time as well.

I recently did a gear oil flush and added some valvoline 75w90 (gonna flush it again next week and swap to redline) but it didn’t seem to fix much. Also, I found some brass (gold for sure) shavings in my drain pan. Nothing huge but definitely reacted to a magnet moving over it. Via another old thread it seems next steps are either shift ball replacement and a clutch master cylinder bleed/replace (start with the easiest first right?) but I’d still like some more updated info as that thread died in 2012. Let me know what you think and I can answer any questions as needed.

Thanks pimps and playettes!

 

Did you change the seat and bushing? If not, get this kit from Marlin Crawler. Makes a huge difference.

https://www.marlincrawler.com/shifter-parts/new-heavy-duty-seat-socket-combo

 

To me it sounds like a hydraulic issue.

Bleed first, then slave, and ideally master with slave.

Master's suck to change, so unless you can see it leaking I save it for last. Slaves are super easy, usually very cheap.

You can get under with a flash light and look at it near the pedal and see if fluid is leaking.

Same with the slave. You can pull its boot back and see if there's any fluid leaks.


Honestly, its likely the master, usually they have internal leaks that cause less pressure to output. But again, I hate changing them and would do it last.

 

I have seen trucks do that

What about first Gear while still moving??

 

I have the same issue in my 04 TRD OR M/T. Its very weird - sometimes its easy, sometimes not. Problem resolves if I let the car move a touch

 

Is this because of the awkward position the bolts holding it in place are in? I've found that swivel extensions help with this.

 

thinking I’ll do this and a bleed per bishops reply.

 

while in motion it’s pretty consistently fine and slides right into 1st