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I need some suggestions before I pull trans from vee. It is fresh, 1 weekend vintage race. It will not go into 2nd gear. I thought at first it was linkage related as linkage was a little sloppy. We have built new linkage front to back and all other gears shift smoothly and very precise. Even if I disconnect linkage and try to shift at hockey stick it just seems like it wants to fall to rev or 4th.

Take the tail cover off and remove the hockey stick and try it just pushing and pulling the levers you may not have the stick in correctly.

or the stick might be BROKEN - I have had one crack before and function erratically until it broke completely off.
Steve, FV80

This happens with my socks all the time.

Where did you last see 2nd gear? Have you looked there?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

It is possible you may have broken the actual gear shifting "catch" that the hockey stick pulls out on. (not sure of the name of it)

Take off the rear housing and make sure all the shifting pieces on the back of the tranny are shaped like an F. The hockey stick goes in there to push them in or pull them out. Post a picture if in doubt.

Like everyone has said, start by removing the tail housing and inspect all the shift rails and hockey stick. The 1st/2nd shift rail is the one in the center. If you can push it in ok (1st), but it won't pull out, (2nd) the problem is internal. Probably the operating sleeve. If the rail seems to be working both ways, make sure the hockey stick is not bent. You may have to find another one for comparison.

thanks for the advice. I will pull apart this weekend.

I pulled nose cone off and found that I could not manually pull shift rod for 2nd into gear. All of the other shift rods go into gear at appx 12lbs of pull with a push/pull scale. the 1st/2nd shift rod goes into 1st with 12lbs of push. I am pulling tranny out and returning to the builder for an internal inspection. Are there any ideas on what could be the cause?

I'd guess that the 1/2 shift fork is BENT. Nothing you can do to fix it short of taking it all apart and replacing the fork. (Try to shift with less shift FORCE and more CLUTCH in the future - it's a TIMING thing ) .

Steve, FV80

It is not a matter of too much force. I installed tranny, went to a race and was never able to put in 2nd.
Pulling and sending to builder
Thanks for all of the thoughts

If nothing is wrong except you cannot find 2nd, why fix it. Use 1st or 3rd. No racetrack I have been on requires 2nd gear. Seems like a huge waste of time and money.
Buy half a set of tires instead.

Only reason is I would like to autocross the car every now and then and just the fact that if something is causing it not to go into secocnd there might be other things going on in tranny

Something has gone wrong in the operating sleeve. I doubt it is anything to do with the fork. Chances are the operating sleeve has excessive wear and is obstructed from moving into 2nd. PM me for more info.

What Greg said, ya dont need it!

grimes34 wrote:What Greg said, ya dont need it!

Personally, I agree with Chuck. I don't feel at all comfortable with things that "don't work right". I'm betting that the cost to REPLACE the trans is a bit higher than the cost to FIX it properly at this point in time.
Steve, FV80

Problem solved. We tore tranny down yesterday and found some small burrs inside of second gear slider that was adding enough resistance to prevent it from sliding into second gear. Polished off and now second slide right into gear. Thanks to all of you that offered advice.

Glad you found and fixed the problem .. I am RELIEVED !
NOW - put it to good use....
Steve, FV80

We do put it to use, between CVAR and HVR we have done 9 race weekends in last 1 1/2 years. Have three races in next 2 months.