krzytrain

A friend of mine has a 99 FRC. His shifter seems to be awfully tight. Most of the time in the neutral position you can move it from side to side pretty freely but his just doesnt seem to bounce back. he was asking me if it is something he should be worried about???

Ive never driven a mn6 corvette so i dont know??? i have driven many 5 speeds and the shifter always seem to have some spring in it and not be so tight. is there anything that could be going wrong with his shifter??? He says it seems to shift fine it just doesnt seem to have the action of any other manual transmission he has ever driven.

He is a old car guy i think he has 4 C2's and bought this one to take on long trips.

Bill Curlee

Your suffering from the C5 six speed tranny weak transmission shift linkage centering spring. The 97 - 2000 C5s had springs inside the tranny that were mediocre at best and would barely return the handle to center from the 5/6 gate. 1 / 2 gate to neutral spring pressure wasn’t much better.

I solved that issue by installing an aftermarket shifter that has additional centering springs inside the shifter handle. Makes a significant improvement!!

I used the KIRBAN Shifter and really like the way it shifts and feels.

I would also remove the shift handle and make sure that shift box shaft doesnt need cleaning and some grease.

BC

Eric D

You might ask your friend if the trans fluid has ever been changed. 11 year old fluid doesn't help with the shifter feel. He will be pleasantly surprised as to how much better it shifts with updated fluid.

Bill Curlee

YES ,, YES! That will improve the shift feel and performance. Dirty ATF will cause the synchros to grind and shift hard.

redrckt97

or does your friends car already have an aftermarket shifter that is stiffer than stock??

Bill Curlee

This is a STOCK shifter removed from the shift box. Clean and grease that shaft and the black pivot ball cap.



Kirban vs stock shifter



BC