Help...trouble shifting into 6th gear.

Just keep bugging the mechanic. If you drive a big company with several terminals, go to another terminal while on the road. Obviously the mechanic you told is just flat out lazy. NOT hard at all to change a sensor.

 

are you sure its not a 10 speed, try going from 5th flip the range selector and then go back to the 1st hole for 6th rather than the 2nd hole for 6th. there should be a sticker somewhere that shows the shift pattern or on the gear shift knob but they could always be missing. iv drove some transmisions that had some weird shift patters like 8-9 hole being reversed with 9th to the dash. or 9speeds where you shifted 1st threw 4rd skip 5th and then go back to the 1st hole on the top side. like you would on a 10 but skip the 5th hole.

it sounds to me like your skipping a gear and thats why its not going into gear until the rpm are so low.

 

also a sensor is not going to make it shift any different unless its a automatic. transmissions are mechanical just gears meshing together so a check engine light wont change how it shifts.

 

True! Didn't think about that!

 

What are your RPM's at when you shift from 5th to 6th (5-7th 10spd) there should be about a 300rpm drop between the gears. If you're shifting at say 1600-1700 rpm and it's dropping that low you have a 10spd instead of a 9spd so go back to the 1 hole instead of the 2 hole. You ain't the first driver that's had this happen so don't feel stupid. Climbed in an old international that had a 9spd with 5th on the high side back in the 1 hole took me almost 1/2 a mile to figure out that 5th wasn't on the low side felt like an idiot but it happens. Just have to laugh about it specailly when you get flipped off by a 6 month old in a car seat because you ain't going fast enough

 

That was my first thought, too....

typical 9 speed transmission shift pattern
typical 10 speed transmission shift pattern

Shift patterns are on page 2 of the pdf's...upper right hand corner of the page. On the 9 speed, "low" is what you probably call 1st...."1" would be 2nd....and so on.

 

don't feel bad it happens to everyone when switching from a truck with one shift pattern to another.

 

don't feel bad... I've driven 9, 10, 13 and 15 spds. I still get mixed up occassionaly.. lol