Usually when the engine is cold I have difficulty shifting into 1st gear. There is no grinding and with a bit of force it goes into 1st gear. On occasion have had trouble getting into reverse under the same conditions. As the truck warms up it shifts normally. Any ideas, I want to sell the truck and don’t want to sink a lot of money into it.
Many manual transmissions were difficult to shift when the temperature is cold, but go to normal after the vehicle has run and the transmission oil is churned up a little. The first suspect would be the type of lubricant in the transmission. It may not be right lubricant for either the climate or the truck. The owner’s manual in one of my old cars called for 80 weight oil in extremely cold climates and 90 weight otherwise. I’m certain that gear lubricant is different now–some manual transmissions even call for automatic transmission fluid. In any event, I would start by changing the lubricant in the transmission to what the manufacturer specifies and see what happens.
I would try a transmission lube change. Check the manual. I would consider going a little lighter weight. Ideally if there is a synthetic with the same second number as listed in the manual, you should be OK with it and it likely will eliminate that grinding.
Thanks for your input. I’ll give it a try. One thing I did not mention is I live in Austin, Texas and the cold conditions I am talking about are like 35 - 50 degrees F (you konw-too cold for shorts and flip flops).
Does it shift into first easily with the engine not running? If that’s the case, you might have a dragging clutch that doesn’t completely disengage and the faster idle during engine warm up aggravates the problem.