Difficulty shifting into 2nd gear (shifter bushing?)

I can't solve your entire problem, but I can offer one data point. I just changed the transmission/differential oil in my 360 Modena, year model 2000. The pump screen was about 80% clogged with fine, mostly steel, particles. I'm guessing, since you have to remove the rear bumper to remove the screen, it had not been changed in a long time, perhaps forever. I don't have a full service history, so the oil might be very old too.

A clean screen and a change to Red Line transmission oil has made a huge improvement in the shift from first to second. It used to be quite difficult, and now it's normal and the other shifts are significantly improved too, both up and down. None of the gears ever used to grind, but the first to second shift sometimes seemed simply locked out, requiring an up-shift to third. Double clutching and fiddling around usually didn't help. It was worse when cold, but it sometimes happened when warm too. I don't have a lot of driving time with my new oil yet, but so far I'm happy. It's too early to tell if the problem is entirely cured, but I do know for sure that things have greatly improved.

Somewhere, on this forum I think, is a diagnostic procedure which I performed to convince me that my shift bushing is OK. In the interest of full disclosure, I noticed that the motion changer on the gear box, where the push-pull motion from the cables is manipulated in such a way to properly operate the gearbox shifting forks, is pretty sloppy. Unfortunately, this is the only one I've ever seen, so I don't know if that's normal or not. I need to do some more research. In the meanwhile I've cleaned off the road grid and used some spray grease on the moving points, but I don't think this has anything to do with my improved first-to-second shift.

 

trans mounts?

 

There should be no side to side play in the shift lever. This is the first sign of a bushing problem. After changing the bushing, you might need to adjust the side to side cable. Mine would not shift into second above 5000 hot or cold but fine below after the bushing. I guess someone had adjusted it as a work around to the worn bushing. Once the console is up, you can easily pop the cable out and adjust and then keep on driving to check it out. A little goes a long way. If it gets worse, then adjust the other direction. Count how far you adjust so if you need to go in the other direction, you can go back to the start point. One half turn at a time is best. Once adjusted, put it all back together.

 

As the shift is cable mounted, the transmission mount will have very little effect on the shift quality and adjustment.

 

If you switch to Redline, you will hear a tremendous amount of driveline chatter. Adding friction modifier will eliminate the chatter, but the car will be difficult to shift, and you'll wear out the shifter bushing. Use Redline light weight shock proof gear oil. The driveline chatter vanishes and the car will shift like butter.

As for the shifter bushing, you can shine a flashlight down through the gate and see if there is a hairline crack at the top.

 

Redline says this about their light weight shock proof gear oil: "Avoid use with pumps, coolers, and filters as unique medium and affinity for metal can cause clogging".

Since the 360 has a pump, a cooler, and a filter (fine mesh screen at least) I wonder why you would suggest using this product. Have you contacted Redline about using this oil in a 360 transmission?

 

The person who recommended this product to me is the owner of a Ferrari repair shop and was the service manager for a Ferrari dealership for many years. There are many people here who swear by this stuff and I have personally put over 40,000 miles on my car with this product. Since it is a "racing" oil running in a street car, I have it swapped out yearly. I can feel the effects slightly diminish after about a year.
I just had my transmission opened up a few months ago (throwout bearing went out, oiled down the clutch which I had replaced) and the parts look great.

 

Red Line Synthetic Oil - Gear Oil for Manual Transmissions - 75W90 NS GL-5 Gear Oil
This is a page from the Redline website. This oil from them is recommended for the Ferrari transaxle. Straight from the source. Redline does not recommend the Shockproof oil for Synchronizer applications.

 

This was the first Redline product I tried. The driveline chatter was unbearable.
The way it was explained to me was that the fact that the shock proof gear oil was designed for straight cut gears is precisely why the car shifts so smooth.

 

I could see this if the gears were straight cut. They are helical cut.

 

I was talking about the gears for which the oil was designed for.