NV3500 transmission won't go in 2nd gear

[MinamiKotaro]

This is the 5 speed we swapped into the old white van. Previous owner says it shifted fine when he took it out. It feels like it goes in 2nd but, as soon as you let up on the clutch (like the slightest bit), it jumps out. No grinding, it just comes out of gear. I'm not sure it even goes in at all. If you fiddle with the shifter enough, it will go in and stay (usually).

Sound more like a shifter problem or a problem with the tranny? Goes into every other gear just fine.

 

[Revving2Redline]

Synchro maybe

 

[ammolab]

Last time that happened to me it was a broken circlip holding second gear on the shaft. Any torque on the gear moved it and popped it right out to neutral.

 

[Silverado12]

It's hard to really tell. The classic sign of a transmission going bad (as in worn out) is if it pops out of gear when you let off the gas. If it's not making noise and sometimes it works, hard to tell for sure w/o disassembling the tranny.

 

[MinamiKotaro]

Welp, got a factory shifter (shifter on it turned out to be a quick shifter). It goes in and stays in but the synchro for second seems to be shot. If I float it into second like an Fuller-Eaton 10 speed it goes in ok, but we'll eventually have to take it out and fix it.