HELP - lost reverse, and 1st & 2nd too when it does find it

[mixtboy]

hi all
i have now owned our minor for a grand total of 3 days. it's a 1969 van. i drove it back from sussex where i bought it and there was a horrible rattle coming from the gaiter area under the shift lever. some nice peeps on here told me it was a plate that holds down the shifter (3 bolts) and the anti rattle thingie under it was prob missing. anyways, i got the spring put it in, then put it back together and now i'm having HUGE difficulty engaging reverse... and when i do manage to get it, it stays stuck in it and i can't get it out of it. i also seem to lose 1st and 2nd on the throw pattern; meaning the shifter moves up and down (3rd and 4th?) but won't push up and over into first nor down left into 2nd. the only way i've managed to pop it out of reverse when it's in it is to turn the key with it in gear and the clutch out. anyways, i've driven it with no probs going forward through all four forward gears today but anytime i've had to reverse i have this nightmare of getting stuck into it.

what do i need to do to fix this? is there some adjustment that i failed to do when i put it back together after putting the spring in the hold under the plate? i really need to get it fixed because i need to reverse it down a long narrow lane every time i use it to park it in our garage, which is also on a narrow turn and therefore i need both forward and reverse gears to shimmy it in! any help very much appreciated.

am gonna take it to a mechanic next week if i can't solve on my own.
thanks

[RobThomas]

Think of it like this. When you put a glove onto your hand you need to get the fingers in the right holes or else you are going to not be able to find a hole for your thumb to fit into. Gaiter off, undo the 3 x 7/16th headed bolts, lift the lever out, look to see where the correct gap is for the bottom of the lever to go into and then bolt it all back up. If this doesn't cure it, you've got a waaaaaaay bigger problem in there. Step one is going to be to try the above method. Let us know how you get on and then we can maybe offer some more suggeted tactics.

Good luck!

[bmcecosse]

Un-do whatever you did before - obviously putting in a spring was the wrong thing to do! Get back to a working gearbox - then worry later about the 'rattle' .

[mixtboy]

i genuinely don't think the spring is doing much to affect things. as for "finding the correct gap" for it to go into, all i see in there is a cup into which the end of the lever goes into... and it goes into it. but when i try to move through the gears with the clutch depressed, i can't get it into first or into second, nor reverse. and when i put the 3 bolts back in and try to shift, all i get is north to south movement. anyone else got any ideas?

the plate that holds the lever in appears to have a very very slight upwards curve in it, and isn't dead flat but not sure if this has any bearing on anything.

and today i drove it fine in gears 1-4 once i got it moving forward. but why can't i get the reverse gear engaged and disengaged easily... that's the main problem!

[bmcecosse]

Sure you didn't drop the plunger into the remote control when you had the lever out ? This is something that has happened immediately as a consequence of whatever you did earlier - so you MUST un-do it!

[mike.perry]

Are you sure that the box was in neutral and the selecter ball on the lever was sitting in the cup and the guide pin was sitting in the groove in the lever ball when you re assembled it?

[RobThomas]

Actually, Mike has described what I was suggesting but in a lot fewer words.



I'm off on my hols tomorrow. Should anyone need a pic of those nasty sticky-out balls in the gearbox, here is one I prepared earlier!
http://www.spritespot.com/gallery/view_ ... rst_jammed

[mike.perry]

Yes Rob but I think you missed out the neutral bit whch makes sure that the ball fits into the cap. Still we were both working along the same lines. Enjoy your hols.

[mixtboy]

hi all
firstly, thanks a lot for all the helpful comments. i took it apart again yesterday after getting stuck in reverse yet again... and took the spring out of the hole that i put in initially to try to stop the rattle. bolted it back up, and managed to get the thing functioning properly again... can now run through all gears and find reverse, and get out of reverse. just hope the bolts will stay tight on that plate so the horrible rattle doesn't return in top gear at speed!!!

on a related matter, i see that there is a "nylon cup" part that is available for minor gearboxes and it's something that the lever ball is supposed to sit in? unless i'm totally wrong (i don't have a haynes manual nor any familiarity with these yet) but i didn't see anything like a nylon cup in the gearbox hole when i had the lever out. all i saw was a greasy metal slot into which the ball end of the lever bottom goes into. is it missing something?!?!?

[MarkyB]

There should be quite a light spring which pushes up on a nylon cup that the bottom of the gear stick rests on.

[mike.perry]

Ref the Haynes Manual, Get a proper BMC Workshop Manual.