this Getrag has gotten progressively worse and worse.

the first symptom was the inability to downshift without significant grindage.

the 2nd symptom was inability to get the transmission INTO gear (at all) when the engine was running, sometimes requiring re-starting the engine after shutting it off to get the gear engaged

the last symptom was a gear lever that wanted to stay in second, despite clutching. then the whole assembly got REAL LOOSE, with way too much travel laterally (while in gear) AND fore & aft (e.g. in 2nd, 4th, and R the lever is ON the seat)

well last night as I was turning the corner onto my street the gear lever disengaged completely from the top of the Getrag so I couldn't engage ANY gear. fortunately I just coasted up to my house and called AAA (can't leave vehicles on the street at night from November through March)

can't wait to find out what my garage charges me to drop the Getrag and sort this problem out, but it sounds like a good time to refresh the synchros and perhaps a master re-build

my $pend rate on this 21 year old truck is FAR worse than $pending money on my 26 year old BOAT (Break Out Another Thousand), which now needs a new ENGINE

 

I was interested in your use of the phrase "double de-clutch"; it's the British equivalent of our phrase "double-clutch", and is is just the opposite view of the operation. On topic, I spoke to a fleet owner running a Dodge Cummins as a hot-shot: he said he had to keep his heavy truck drivers out of it cuz they wouldn't use the clutch and had kept taking out the, well NV tranny in his case I suppose. I "double-declutch" my Getrag for almost every shift up and down.

 

the garage fixed the detached shift lever but told me the threads were stripped from jamming it into gear. they repaired the threads and installed a lock nut so the lever wouldn't pop out again. a cheap repair, but it's just treating a symptom, not the root cause

they're telling me that the cost of dropping the Getrag and servicing the synchros and bearings could be well over $1K (which I can't afford at this point). They told me they'd look into a rebuilt unit from some vendor (can't remember the name).

I hate jury-rigged solutions but I might be forced to swallow this one since I'm out of coin at this point

 

I would get one from the guy on ebay and replace it yourself, it would save a few grand...Mark

 

I'm not as handy as the rest of you.

A rebuilt Getrag 360 runs $1,100 on E-Bay (jjeeper) and a clutch kit runs $300.

My garage will charge me 8-9 hours in labor so the whole job will run $2,500

It's the right way to fix this problem and I might just have to suck it up.

 

Down shifting: You have to pick your revs up between gears, when you double clutch......5th to 4th, and 4th to 3rd.....you may not be picking the revs up enough. Practice it, you'll get onto it.
I'm an old-timer....from the era of no syncromesh and square cut cogs.....
A Getrag with wornout/no syncromesh is still very drive-able......

 

Before you dive into the expense of a rebuild, give this a shot:
Drain the transmission.
Refill it with solvent.
With the engine running and the transfer case in neutral, run it through the gears a couple times. This will give it a good clean out.
Drain the solvent.
Replace it with some cheap 20 weight oil and repeat.
Replace the 20 weight with a synthetic 5W30 and drive it for a while.
You can't do any more damage, and it may be just what it needed to fix it.

 

I'm not close to being a old timer at 18 but I can float every gear pick up or 18 wheeler I started on a 18 speed when I was 14

My buddies ferd was doing the same thing but his clutch was going out

 

X2, when I was a new firefighter, we had 900 series ALFfire trucks with non-synchromesh "crash boxes". The old timers (then, not now) always said that if you could drive one of those, without grinding, you could drive anything. Double clutching has become a lost art...Mark