Hi,

I have a m90 from my old '95 960. It had crunchy 3rd gear, so I took it apart, replaced the synchro and welded the stop ring. I cleaned it out the best I could after the repairs. The welding was done while the gear pack was in the housing, doesn't have the tool to remove the whole shaft from the bearing.

Put it all back together and tried to shift trough all the gears. It was somewhat difficult, especially the 5th and reverse gears. 1-2 and 3-4 are bearable.
Took it all apart again. 1-2 and 3-4 shaft are moving freely in their place, selector arm moves freely. But the 3rd shaft for the 5th and reverse is rock solid. Can barely move with my hands.
Is it supposed to be like that?

I have a '97 m90L2 as well for redblocks, I can shift through all the gears without effort using the selector arm only. I can't take it apart to inspect the 3rd shaft, bc I've already sold it and don't want to open it. FYI this box has 400.000km+ and butter smooth. The other box (the repaired one) has "indicated" 230.000kms... I'm also thinking about revision changes. Maybe the older box was never as smooth as the newer one?

Please give me ideas what should I be looking for. Dirt in 3rd shaft's bearing??
I'm afraid to put the car together with a sketchy m90.