Hey all,
My friend drives a 95 tercel with around 100k miles on it and thinks he has a broken gear synchro.

Basically, he brought his car over one day and me, being the ass that isn't around a lot of stick shift cars, decided to just row gears a bit. Here's the catch: the car was OFF. I had the clutch in, just moving the stick in each gear. I didn't think anything was wrong, but apparently I forced it into second gear according to him and now it doesn't engage right.

Did I break his synchro or something?

Cliffs Notes:

• Friend has stick shift car
• I rowed some gears
• the car was off and the clutch was in
• now he thinks the gear synchro is broken
• second is hard to engage

 

I have shifted many of car with the engine off, clutch in, and i don see how it would have affected the car.

even if you did shift with out the clutch, nothing is moving, no gears, no flywheel, I dont see how this is possible

dont get me wrong, I could be totally off here, just makes no sense to me

 

Yea I think your friend is trying to pull a fast one on you...

 

He's just really frustrated with the car since he saved up to get it and it means a lot to him. I honestly didn't think any harm would come out of it, considering I've done the same thing in lots of cars (Zs, TAs, Camaros, Stangs, etc).

 

It's okay to "shift" while the car is off. That alone won't damage anything. The issue is whether you actually did force it into a gear.

 

Trannys with 100k mileage needs that extra effort to shift, even when the car's off. The question is if you forced it in (tell the truth) or if it slided in easily.

 

It went in fairly easily. I mean, I didn't line it up PERFECTLY, but it went in okay. I'm sure its just the age of the car.

 

Probably.

He's probably more attentive to it as well. Also, how does he describe the second gear not engaging properly?