Tranny grinding

Thanks to all who post and answer the questions here. This site has been a great help in getting my '63 CJ-5 back on the road.

I have two quick questions. When stopped and trying to downshift into 1st gear, the tranny grinds terribly. I have read that the T-90 tranny does not have a synchro for first gear. That explains a lot, but I am afraid that forcing the tranny into first is going to do some damage eventually. Am I worried about nothing, or is there something I can do to make the shifting a bit less noisy?

Second question. When driving the Jeep it wanders quite a bit. I have checked the play between the steering wheel and the output shaft of the steering gear box. There is no play there or in the joint of the arm connecting to the gear box. I hope y'all can follow that description. My question is what else to check and look for? The lack of precise steering control makes me nervous!

Thanks for your input.

 

A little more detail about first gear and double clutching...
Typically around town you would only shift into 1st at a full stop. As Howard says, 1st is for going, sp. from a full stop. If you are moving at all, you should be able to drop into 2nd and slip the clutch a little to go. Grinding the gears is not good - when you come to a stop and want to shift into 1st, give the gears a few seconds to spin down before you shift.

If you find you need to double clutch, the technique requires you to push in the clutch twice: once into neutral and then again to drop into gear. When you are in neutral and rolling, the mainshaft and 1st gear are turning at the speed of the driveshaft, while the input gear and cluster gear are turning at the speed of the engine. The idea is to rev up the engine to the speed that matches the speed you are rolling at, in the gear that you want to drop into. If you could match the gear speeds perfectly, you wouldn't need to push the clutch in a second time at all... easier said than done! Once you've driven the car a while, you can guess what the engine speed should be, and you can drop into 1st with minimal gear clash.

So, from second gear, clutch in, from 2nd to neutral. Release the clutch, speed up the engine to match the gear speeds (steady!) In one smooth movement, clutch in and shif into 1st - hopefully you got the speeds right and there'll be very little gear clash.

Back in the pre-war days, none of the forward gears were synchromesh, and drivers got along fine, both for upshifts and down.

 

Thanks for the ideas. I did not make it clear that I am at a complete stop when trying to engage 1st gear. The double clutching sounds like loads of fun. I'm not a very good dancer so it will take a while to get the hang of it! I have tried shifting into 2nd and then first while at a stop. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not. I'll adjust the clutch first and see if that makes a difference. As for the steering wander. I'll search and research some more. Thanks again.