interesting transmission noises

[olie05]

For the past two days my transmission has been making a light, and random ticking noise, mostly in second gear, sometimes in first gear and sometimes in neutral. It sounds like there is a small piece of metal being kicked around in there, but it only happens every once in a while. i also notice my first gear has been making a whining noise as I accelerate through it. There is no difference in shifter feel if anyone is wondering, it still feels as good as it has in the past. Should I be worried? This is a junkyard tranny off a 79 280zx with about 130,000 miles on it.

[Phyxius]

my old 4 speed started making a ticking noise like you describe, but it was constant...louder in higher gears than the lower ones... turns out i'd chipped several teeth off of several gears...

[Thumper]

I would check the tranny fluid level. If you get an increase in gear noise all of sudden it usually means low fluid. About tinking it could be many things. I would check for lose connections, exhaust pipeing, etc... before I considered internal damage.

[JMortensen]

The usual ZX problem is that the mainshaft nut backs off. This basically causes all of the gears to get loose on the main shaft. This play in the mainshaft gears takes out the countershaft bearings, which is usually identified by the transmission sounding like it has a bunch of marbles in it when you're in neutral with the clutch out.

 

Not sure what the ticking in gear could be other than a chipped tooth as suggested above. Checking fluid level is a very good piece of advice...