If a shifter on ANY car does not feel like it wants to glide into 2nd gear, don't force it. Try going fast in 1st gear, then raising the RPMS while you have the clutch pushed in, and see if the gear goes into 2nd gear with no problems.
If you ever FORCE the shifter into 2nd, then you are the one who messed up the transmission.
I'm not sure what everyone is doing when they shift to 2nd, but EVEN if the tranny didn't have the best synchros, it would STILL just pop right into 2nd if you match the revs when you shift.
When you Don't blip the throttle and match revs on a 1-2 shift, you are making the 2nd gear sychro do MORE work.
you have two cones spinning at different RPMS. when you slide the shifter to 2nd, those two cones start kissing until they BOTH turn the same RPM. One cone is spinning the speed of the clutch disk itself. the other cone is spinning a forced RPM based on how fast the rear tires are turning. When the clutch is pushed in, the clutch disk is "free to spin" freely but you STILL are matching two different cone speeds when you move the shifter from 1 to 2.
If you make an effort to match these rpms while you are shifting you can save your 2nd gear synchro. (and all the other gear synchos.)
Also, I'm not sure but I think some of these transmissions have 1-2 synchros that have 3 cones. (this was to try to help but something tells me this design is worse and it probably does not work well till the tranny is warmed up.)
Raise the RPMS and it should make the shifter go right into 2nd gear easily without any kind of grinding.
I have a mustang GT with a 5-speed. I have heard millions of people complain the transmission had problems, but I put 180,000 miles on mine and my transmission is perfect with zero issues.
Anyone who drives (a V8-stick shift) car like a "video game" or like a honda civic will tear up everything in their drivetrain starting from the clutch disk to rear differential.
It would be helpful if people who drive a stick shift could physically see a manual transmission disassembled to see what is happening mechanically when they press a clutch pedal or move a shift lever. 90 percent of society has no clue what is happening.
you DON'T NEED an engineering degree to understand how a synchro works and a clutch/pressure plate/throw out bearing/hydraulic clutch master/slave cylinder.
EDUCATE yourself. Don't just blindly damage a 4000 dollar transmission/drivetrain. Then go blame everyone else after it's too late.
Peace out
