Richmond 5 Speed Trouble

[alicarmar]

The scenario: I launched hard in first gear and felt a funny shudder (thought it was ignition related - I've had MSD distributor corrosion issues), hit 2nd gear without a problem, went for third and felt/heard grinding. I was able to coast to a stop and find first gear. I was not able to shift into any other gears so I limped home. The linkage will find reverse, but the engine bogs when I let out the clutch - The clutch works fine. My hope is that I'll find a linkage problem when I crawl under the car, however I'm pretty sure that the transmission needs some serious repair. My question: Is it difficult to service the unit or should I farm it out to a pro? I built the car but did not handle any of the internal engine or rear end work. If I should leave it to a pro, do any of you know of a good shop in the Newburyport, MA area?

Thanks.

PS It's the street 5 speed, not the road race unit.

[wtm442]

Call Mike Forte in Framingham.

I do not know him, but a friend says he is a Tremec EXPERT. Maybe he can help.

http://www.fortesparts.com/

[Frank Messina]

The Richmond is very easy to work on so whether you do it or you have somebody do it for you it's not rocket science. Just lay it on it's side and pry the two halves apart. Lift out the gear shafts and strip off the injured pieces. You will need some big snap ring pliers to get the retaining clips off the gear shafts and a tube of silicone to put it back together. Doug Nash used to include a "how to do it" service manual with every transmission. If you're lucky, Richmond may have their own version that they can send you that shows all the steps. I had mine apart three or four times to replace the synchros, etc. Check your linkage first though before tearing stuff apart.
Frank

[alicarmar]

Thanks for the replies - The documentation that came with the transmission is pretty extensive - I'll probably dive in and give the repair a try if the issue is not linkage related.

[alicarmar]

I pulled the transmission and split the case. Everything in there is a thing of beauty - Not a chewed up gear or synchro in sight and absolutely no metal in the fluid. However, the middle and front shift arms do not move freely - I pulled the parts out (no signs of wear) and put them back in, but the results are the same? Any thoughts?

[Tommy]

I'm following this thread closely because the Richmond 5-speed that was in my car when I bought it has a history of being difficult to shift on what seems to be a random basis. I was thinking about pulling mine apart, so please keep us posted as you proceed.

[SantaFe66]

Does anybody have an idea how to get a hold of the "how to do it" manual that Doug Nash included with his Road Course transmissions? I have one of those and need the manual.

Thanks. Paul.

[pmazza]

I came across this site while looking for something else, but figured I would throw my .02 in on the Richmond street 5.

I had similar experience with the Richmonds heavy gears being balky to shift at higher RPMs. I run the Long H pattern shifter and the trans was very sensitive to shift handle stop settings as well. After a couple of seasons of opening it up and everything seemingly looking ok, I figured someone had to have a way to fix this.

I found good info at 5speeds.com and the owner there referred me to SK Speed in NY (skspeed.com). Brian runs the trans shop at SK and knows his stuff on Richmonds.

Ended up sending up the internals to them and replacing 1-2,3-4 synchros with the 'road race' brass, replace forks with original DNE units - they are different and resist wear better. My Richmond forks were very scarred up. They also did a number of updates to mainshaft assembly to improve shift feel at RPM. Turned out I needed to replace 4th on mainshaft also due to stress cracks.

Its been back in the car for 18 months now and still feels like a new trans, definitely glad I spent the money. Hope this helps.

Phil

[Tommy]

Alicarmar - Update?

[alicarmar]

I called the Richmond tech line - He said that it should be very difficult to move the shift arms by hand and that one will only move if the other two are in the neutral position. He suggested that I may want to try cutting a coil off of the detent spring to loosen things up a bit. He originally assumed that the problem was with the shifter and asked if it's a Hurst or Long - When I told him that it's a Long, he discounted that as a possibility and mentioned that he's heard of plenty of problems with the Hurst unit. I ordered a new detent kit so I can have a set of springs to fiddle with as well as a new fastener kit (the old ones were very rusty) - When the parts arrive, I'll experiment with the springs, button it all up and cross my fingers. I'll let you know what happens.

[Tommy]

Thanks for the update.

[alicarmar]

The final installment: When installing the new detent kit I noticed that the little do-dads that limit the ball bearing travel inside the little carriers were the same size originally and DIFFERENT sizes in the new kit (to match the sizes of the two different carriers). The cams moved relatively easily when the new kit was installed so I went ahead an put the transmission back together again. It shifted like a dream on the bench so I installed it back in the car, filled it with fluid (Redline 75-90NS) and buttoned everything up. It was gorgeous up here in the Northeast on Sunday and the rain washed away the salt so I dropped the car off the jack stands and took a test drive. The results were terrific - It shifts faster and smoother than ever. One discaimer: I removed the silly little weights from the Centerforce clutch that many people have said hinder high rpm shifting (a problem that I've had in the past) so that may have helped too.

Now if I can only find out why there's a puddle of coolant on my garage floor..... There's still plenty of winter left so I guess I needed another project to pass the time until the weather breaks.

Happy New Year.

[Jimi G]

Glad to here you got it going, now on to the coolant issue, lol.