I have a 98' Sidekick which I bought a few months ago and have been going over everything along with doing a suspension lift etc. I had changed all the fluids the weekend after getting her home. I put in a GL4 75-90 gear oil in the trans as specd in the manual. With only 1200 miles since the fluid change the weather has dropped during the over night hours, some nights into the 30's already. Well the trans has been acting like the the synchros are shot untill the fluid warms up completely(then it is ok again). I decided to try the Pennzoil Synchromesh MTF and swapped it out last night. This morning I went out, started her up and she easily slid into gear, like butter! After about two hours of driving I noticed the trans shifting and feeling far better than ever!

Nice.  I had the opposite problem when I put synthetic gear oil in.  Then again, the syncro's aren't in the best of shape and my bearings are in need of replacement. 

The Pennzoil Synchromesh is not a synthetic, though it does have some synthetic additives.

The stories I've heard make it sound like it'll give your dying transmission a new life - and these are not just some random forum post, but from guys that I trust - the only reason I haven't tried it is there's no local supplier.

Yeah, it's good stuff!  Put some in my old turbo DSM that was grinding in several gears, SyncroMesh got rid of all the grinding!

-Chad

I have heard of people using that, but I'm very skeptical to new types of fluids. I guess you could say I'm old school but I'm gonna try this in my manual trans cars. How much is it?

Zak

It depends upon where you purchase it, anywheres from 4-7 dollars a quart. It is not all that new, I have used it for several decades now. MTF's were created to address the shortcomings of gear oil in transmissions.

We have had several below freezing mornings here lately and the Pennzoil Synchromesh has allowed the transmission to perform flawlessly.

It depends upon where you purchase it, anywheres from 4-7 dollars a quart. It is not all that new, I have used it for several decades now. MTF's were created to address the shortcomings of gear oil in transmissions.

We have had several below freezing mornings here lately and the Pennzoil Synchromesh has allowed the transmission to perform flawlessly.

Awesome im going to buy some and put it in this next paycheck, Thanks!

Zak

I use this in my Fiero 4 speed MT and my Trackick 5 Speed. The Fiero was fairly difficult to get into reverse and first with the 5w30 but it sorted itself out as soon as I changed to the synchromesh. The tracker still needs the 2-1 shift after coming to a dead stop from 5th gear every now and then but otherwise it's really smooth. No grinding at least.
I would definitely recommend this stuff.

5w-30? Do you mean 90w-130? 5w-30 is not really a trans fluid, but I
would take that over nothing in a pinch.

Many new transmissions and transfer cases take ATF as the fluid, I think
it improves fuel economy and seems to work fine.

Most people don't think of ATF as being a suitable gear oil, but it has good
anti-wear properties and frees up HP too.

I mixed up a slippery batch of 1qt Lucas synth  and 1 qt Mobil-1 synth ATF
for my t-case, I figured it to be as good as manual transmission fluid at a better price

5w-30? Do you mean 90w-130? 5w-30 is not really a trans fluid, but I
would take that over nothing in a pinch.

Many new transmissions and transfer cases take ATF as the fluid, I think
it improves fuel economy and seems to work fine.

Most people don't think of ATF as being a suitable gear oil, but it has good
anti-wear properties and frees up HP too.

I mixed up a slippery batch of 1qt Lucas synth  and 1 qt Mobil-1 synth ATF
for my t-case, I figured it to be as good as manual transmission fluid at a better price

Fieros and other GM cars of that era that had the muncie 4 speed or getrag 282 5 speed were shipped from the factory with 5w30 in the transmissions. I believe it was only toward the late 80's that GM issued a TSB calling for the use of synchromesh to smooth out shifting, especially on the 4 speed. Sorry for bringing Gremlin Motors into the discussion, just wanted to illustrate that this fluid has helped on two vehicles of mine.

Honda also spec'd 5w-30 for their transaxles, though they did recently change to a Honda MTF since around 2001 or so.

Just something to be aware of - I've been told that the way viscosity is measured for motor oils & gear oils is different - that 5W30 engine oil would be somewhere around a 70w80 gear oil - a little on the light side, but not as much as you might think, given the difference in numbers.

I'll see what internet sources google turns up and post them

Yea, since it's synthetic the numbers are all off.

It's got nothing to do with it being synthetic - it's about how it's measured - gear oil is measured differently.