Well got it back from the dealer and it goes in a LITTLE bit easier but im still not satsfied...Does anyone else have to pick up on the reverse lever to go into 5th gear?

 

Must be an SS thing, i just have the big chrome ball on the top of mine. My mom has a grand am with the pull up lever you speak of and you had to put the car in reverse to even take the key out, after about 25k miles it stopped working all together and the key will come out in any gear and you don't have to pull up to engage reverse. so you can just wait till it breaks... LOL i don't understand why they put that in anyway. i would have removed it the first day if mine had that... thats just my 2 cents though. as far as shifting the 2LT 5 spd is a pretty smooth shifter and I only have a problem getting into 1st on occasion. Problems with 5th gear sounds like you still have an issue. try another dealer. i hate to say it but most of em wouldn't know an HHR if it bit them. I think the Chevy dealer in where i bought mine is the only one that i have been to down her that knows anything at all and ChevyMgr is pretty knowledgeable as well. good luck!

 

I'm guessing they added the reverse lock with the proliferation of 6-speeds. It would kinda suck if you were used to driving a 6-speed and pulled straight down from 5th to upshift to 6th and put it in reverse at high speed instead... I'm guessing it would grind the gears a little, but that you wouldn't be able to get it all the way into reverse, which would likely destroy most of your power train, and send the vehicle into a spin. Mythbusters tried to do it with an old beater. With the huge potential for loss, it would make sense to have good safeguards, probably more than the old beater Mythbusters destroyed.

The manual says that you aren't supposed to be able to remove the key after shutting down the engine with the 5-speed until it's in reverse, but the position of the shift lever doesn't seem to affect key removal on mine.

 

^^ ditto.

my 5th gear moves in just fine.

 

So back to the drawing board guess I'll try another dealer then....we'll get this problem resolved someday

 

Have no idea if the dealer tech. referenced the GM TSB list but I found this. I have no idea if it applies to the manual transaxle in the SS (RPO below I believe), but......

TSB # 07-03-29-001A, MG3, M86 manual transaxle requires excessive engagement or disengagement effort in 5th gear or reverse. Will not shift into 5th or reverse.

Hope it helps.

 

No problem with mine.

 

I have 650 miles on mine since I bought it last Saturday and I Do have to lift slightly on the reverse lever to get into 5th easilly. It will go into 5th withough lifting the lever but is very difficult to do so. I figured that is just the way it is. I may take it in next week to have them check it out if it doesn't wear in this weekend.

 

So I'm to pick up the HHR/SS today from the dealer for the 2nd time to see if they fixed the tranny this time we'll see....

 

good luck