Loose gears

Solar

Solar

0
I've been reading previous posts on gear boxes but still not sure what has happened to mine. I've been having trouble getting into gears recently and it was booked in to the mechanics next week to get looked at. Today the gear stick was stiff to move, but then all of a sudden whilst trying to change gears it became very loose. Not sure if something came loose or snapped? I'm still having trouble getting it into gear, but it does eventually go in.

I was intending on driving it tomorrow but I am worried will I cause more damage or will the gear box give up on me. I am meant to be doing a 100 mile round trip.

So does anyone know what may of happened to the gear box for it to feel so loose?

Any advice would be appreciated. Cheers!!!
 
Can you get all gears?

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Hi Panky, yes I can get all of the gears. First and second are the tricky one to get into, but I have no problem with 3rd, 4th and reverse. I am having the same problem getting it into first and second like I had before but now the gearbox seems very loose. However when it does go into gear it goes in without much effort - before today it was more of a push to get it into gear.
 
It is a pain as majority of time I end up going into 3rd when trying to pull away and then it can take a while and a bit of jigging to find first or at least 2nd....whilst traffic behind have to wait patiently. It's going to get looked at next week but from driving it today and all of a sudden the gearbox feeling totally different I am worried that something might of snapped. In a way it actually feels better than it did before, but still 80% of the time it has trouble going into both first and second. I wasn't sure if i could smell slight burning when changing it into gear or whether it was the fumes from the car in front?? It wasn't a strong smell it was anyway.
 
It sounds like a linkage issue, it may be that the bearing at the base of the gear lever was seizing up and has come free (Clarabel had a similar issue at Tatton) or possibly the bush on the end of the linkage has disintegrated. Either way you should be OK to drive it to the mechanic, will he have the spares to fix it though?
If you look underneath you will see a thin rod with a ball joint at either end connecting the gearchange linkage to the gearbox selector, disconnect the end at the linkage and give the ball joint a couple of turns out on the spindle thread - might work wonders, if it doesn't then put it back as you found it.

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Cheers Panky for all of that advice. I'll try to look at that tomorrow. I can't get the mechanic to look at it until next week, but Speedy spares are just round the corner so hopefully they will have the parts to fix it. You mentioned it would be fine to get to the mechanics but would going on a one hour motorway drive be pushing my luck too much??
 
Let's face it we push our luck every time we set out in our vans;)
I think you will be lucky to get the linkage bushes from Speedies, have a word with Martin Maltas.

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Hahaha, so true! Cheers once again for all of your help, much appreciated!! I'll update this post when I find out more.
 
It's probably the bushes seized up then disintegrated. i had them made, Speedies don't have them, £5 each 2 required. Check the bushes before adjusting anything.

www.commervanspares.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/commervanspares
 
Hi Solar, I had the same problem on my commer. First and second gear were getting almost impossible to get into, but third,fourth and reverse were fine. I got some new bushes off Martin, replaced the old ones and the problem was solved. The rear gear linkage is quite straight forward to replace but the front one is more difficult. I had a friend help me when I needed to get the bracket under the accelerator rod.

Member of the non-Facebook club.
 
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