Transmission clunk and grind/squealing

[Saffir3]

I have a 2014 Camaro 1SS with the 1LE package & the Tremec TR6060 transmission. There is a CLUNK when shifting HARD in EVERY gear it feels like im not pushing in the clutch in at all and forcing it into gear, I am pushing the clutch in as hard as I can all the way. There is also a grinding/squealing noise from 1st‐2nd (youtube link). When I shift showly there is no clunk/grind and everything is fine. What could be wrong? Clutch cable needs adjustment? Transmission low on gear oil? Transmission needs rebuild? Low break fluid? Worn out slave Cylinder?

Thanks for the help

https://youtu.be/IJYsTniXz8c?si=UCW5R4yJxyC50tFk

[TheBrightSide]

I’m super paranoid with my clutch not disengaging all the way, so I guess the same could be said for engaging… Have you checked your master cylinder reservoir? How is the fluid and how are your brakes? If your brakes aren’t braking well at all, and you have newish looking fluid or old fluid, I highly recommend taking a chicken baster to pull out the fluid from the reservoir and driving it around for a week to cycle it.

It would be much easier to tell right off the bat if your clutch fluid itself was dirty, since a lot of the manual V8 guys here, opt for the 04-06 Pontiac GTO remote clutch fluid reservoir mounting kit. JDP Motorsports and Gen5DIY are two of the most popular websites that sell the kit, which mounts onto the original brake master cylinder.

The Tremec TR-6060 and other manual transmissions like the Getrag MT-82 that use a fairly similar design with the concentric clutch slave cylinder/throwout bearing and shared master cylinder, often have issues with the clutch dust getting through the slave cylinder seal and making it’s way to the brake fluid. If you drive your car a lot or track it, there’s for sure going to be dirty brake fluid.

There is no permanent cure for it, and even with the GTO clutch fluid reservoir, the reservoir is much smaller, so you end up seeing the contamination monthly, or even every few weeks, depending on how often and how hard you drive the car, and also how often you go to check the master cylinder reservoir under the hood. With the stock shared master cylinder, it’s much harder to tell until you drive the car hard and have the pedal stick to the floor and lose hydraulic pressure, or your brakes themselves start fading; both of which are exacerbated by the natural clutch dust contamination…. Look up the ‘Ranger’ clutch care method, it will show you mostly everything wrong with these Tremec transmissions, from the design itself..

Do you have a stock or aftermarket clutch? If aftermarket, how aggressive? Do you have any other clutch and flywheel kit modifications, or any other mods to the transmission hydraulics, like the clutch master cylinder itself? Does your clutch pedal feel okay? What’s the engagement point like? I know my biting point has always been sloppy, even with a fully bled clutch and brand new clutch fluid, etc. I have yet to bleed my clutch, but even from changing out a bad upper clutch fluid line/hose, I found that my clutch pedal pressure returned. My engagement point when my clutch hose was failing, was a lot lower, and the pedal felt a lot softer past the initial clutch pedal spring tension (if you do have it in). I highly, highly recommend getting the clutch fluid reservoir, and if possible at all, to install a speed bleeder line to the (concentric) slave slave cylinder.

Also, this might be a more serious issue, but if all of the above doesn’t have issues, maybe the clutch slave cylinder itself or throwout bearing support might have melted, if it is the factory plastic one… Again, there’s really no way to check that without some major transmission housing servicing, so see if you or someone like a mechanic can bleed the slave cylinder for you, or by miracle somehow, install a speed bleeder line and bleed it for you as well.

[bsn]

It may be something as simple as a small amount of air in the system, try a thorough bleeding.