Something I Overheard Recently....
 

"I haven't tried using both hands to hold it into 5th gear yet, but you can't drive that way at 140, even with your knees."

I guess Bone is going to have to fix his transmission!

Yeah, with 5th gear out of my transmission, I basically have to avoid the interstate... On the rural two lanes around here, cruising speed(60mph) yields 3000 RPM... It takes a very firm grip to hold it in 5th at all, and if you drop below, say, 5"of vacuum, it'll kick out of 5th... It used to be that it would stay as long as you kept it in vacuum(and applied force to the shifter if you anticipated going into boost) it would be fine, but it's getting worse, oddly enough, with minimal use of 5th gear at all...

The noise that I thought was a bad TOB was actually a bad bearing in the trans...

That's why I bought a stick shift parts car, one of the transmissions is bound to be good. I bought both stick shift cars with broken and or missing connecting rods. The powertrain is hanging in the car. Maybe Monday back in the shop.

Back in the 70's my dad had a Dodge 440 wagon with a 318 poly engine and three on the tree trans. It knocked like hell (trans) and you could NOT hold it in 1st gear with both hands on the shift lever. I found another transmission for $50 in a junkyard and grabbed it. Dad and I replaced the trans and when we opened the old one, there were 5 teeth missing off first gear! We never did figure out how the hell that happened. When you pull yours apart, Bones, check the gears for missing teeth and let me know if you find any. I'm just curious.

Bones does have a history of shifting at or near redline, so I suppose if you're try to mate things inside the tranny near the highest rotational speed for that gear, and there are fewer teeth, the effect of damage present would be magnified

Something sounds wrong about that. What is wrong?

In a previous century I was racing someone in my 78 F150 that had 3 on the tree.
Went for second gear at redline and full throttle and BOOM!
I'll never forget that grinding, banging, jerking stop.
When I took that tranny apart there were hardly any gears with teeth still on them. Lots of gear teeth loose in the bottom though.

Were it any other gear going out, that would make some sense, but I've never been near my 7200 RPM limit and shifting into 5th under load... I've shifted at around 6200 but that was also a "shift and stay off the fuel" kind of thing

My mechanic theorized that there was a bad bearing on that end of the trans, causing 5th gear to not be properly supported, and it's slowly just gone out because the gears haven't been properly meshing, and now won't at all

I could replace the fifth gearset, but knowing about the bad bearing makes it quite a gamble... I think I'll just drive it as a four speed until I find a replacement trans

Is it an f23? If so what final ratio, there are lots of low milers on car-part.com.

It's an F35 trans, and I'm pretty sure 04 is unique in mounting and speed sensor location