I have an 81 pickup with an L50 that has started to grind when I put it into reverse. any ideas on what this could be? clutch hydros, clutch disk, bad transmission??? thanks

 

To some extent, that is normal. When you are idling in neutral the input shaft of the transmission is spinning. When you press the clutch pedal the transmission is disconnected from the engine but the input shaft continues to spin for a little bit just from its own momentum. Reverse gear isn't synchronized so if you depress the clutch and slowly pull it into reverse you'll hear/feel the gears grind a bit until the input shaft stops spinning. This is 100% normal. You can remedy this by shifting into any forward gear then shifting into reverse. This uses the synchronizer from whatever gear you choose to slow and stop the input shaft from spinning so that when you shift to reverse you're meshing a stopped shaft with a stopped shaft.


Now, if you are grinding to the point of it causing difficulty to shift into reverse, and if you feel increased resistance shifting into forward gears from a stop, then I'd first check the clutch hydraulics.


As the clutch wears it typically engages higher off the floor which means that it's actually disengaging more. If the hydraulics are faulty, they typically do not disengage the clutch fully meaning that the clutch will always drag a bit and be trying to spin the transmission input shaft.