Thread: Heavy into reverse

Yesterday my 2000 GTP started getting a little heavy going into reverse from neutral or park. No bad noises or anything, just a much heavier than usual thump. I changed the filter and fluid today as it was in need of it, and that didn't seem to do much of anything for it. The magnet had the usual sludge, but nothing out of the ordinary, and definitely no chunks or free floating metal in the pan. Going into drive, and through all the gears while moving are normal.

What might I be looking at, or what should my next steps be to determine the problem? Recently I have dropped the subframe(heavier shift was not apparent afterwards). Also just two days ago I finished replacing the struts. Is it possibly a bad axle? Passenger side is new. Driver side does click on a fully turned wheel so it will need to be done soon, but it doesn't have any wobble or shuddering while driving. Lower motor mount is also brand new, trans mount is about a year old.

The dog bones aren't that old either, but the front lower mount did get destroyed and was driven that way for a while. I guess that would subsequently put more stress on the dog bones. I'm having a hard time remembering what it feels like with new bones. Should there be any play in them at all, or should they be pretty much unmoving?

So I finally got under the hood open and took a look at it shifting. There's definitely a lot of movement. There's some movement on the bottom mounts, but I think it's more from flex. Like I said the trans mount is about a year old at most, and the motor mount is brand new. There was what I would say is significant movement on the torque struts and their mounts. I believe the mounts themselves are fine(no deformities), and that it's just the bushings.

Is it worth trying to just do the bushings, or should I just replace them? I can get the torque struts for $11/ea, and their mount brackets for $22/ea at rockauto. I've heard that trying to press in the new bushings can be a real PITA.