Jerky T176

Hi Guys!
I've been away for a long time and thought I would drop in to ask a question. My T176 seems to be almost locking up when I'm in reverse. It would remind you of a bad bearing or maybe gears trying to climb each other. All forward gears are smooth with no issues but reverse is bad enough it feels like it is trying to lock up. I took out the tranny and opened it up. Saw absolutely nothing wrong. No obvious bad bearings or gears. Lower reverse gear looks normal and spins free on the stub shaft. I also opened up the transfer case(Dana 300) just to make sure it was okay. Looks normal. I did notice the shift was worn where it sets in the pins of the shift tower. I replaced the shifter with a new one but it made no difference. I've also removed the rear drive shaft and drove with just the front axle. Same result. The strange thing it when I start to back up it will start "catching" so I will push in the clutch and it almost jerks to a stop. It will stay sort of locked up until I pop the shifter back in neutral or a forward gear. Does this sound like something screwy with the shift tower? It looks okay but I can't imagine what else it might be. Any suggestions? Hey the site looks great. Nice to be back!

 

Check the shifter. Also check for end play of the input shaft and output shaft. Did you check clearances between the gears and blocking rings? If one has less clearance than the others I would look closer there. Pay special attention to 4th gear blocking ring clearance. If tighter than the others this indicates the mainshaft is moving forward or input is moving back.


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Got my tranny apart and found a couple of problems, one bad. The sychro's were pretty worn but the thing causing the trans to basically lock up was a broken sychro insert. Half of it was still in the slider and the other half was laying in the bottom of the tranny. I can't imagine what had to happen for that to fly out. It destroyed the sychro ring when it came out. Shift wasn't in the best shape so I replaced the shift tower and the shifter. The 1rst/2nd shift fork was totally worn out where the shift slides in it. The entire shift fork is brass and totally gone. I had an old shift tower I saved from another junk tranny. I pulled the shift fork out and found they had added a steel insert in the brass fork where the shifter slides. This looks like a later year upgrade to the tranny. Anyhow, all new shifter and rebuild kit on the way for the tranny. Thanks for the help.