25-10-2017, 11:49 AM
(24-10-2017, 09:24 AM)Dave Mann Wrote: I recently experienced the gear lever returning to neutral under it's own weight after engaging bottom and before engaging the clutch on a 2 SYN 4 speed box. If I held the lever in bottom until the clutch was engaged it stayed in gear whilst under load but promptly dropped into neutral as soon as the clutch disengaged. This was caused by failure of the first gear selector spring, it's replacement is covered in the Cornwall club website.That happened to me up a Swiss alp once - 1st gear cog effectively fell off the end of the shaft & jammed against the casing. Combo of weak selector springs and too much end float. The crash boxes are more robust I think.
Forty odd years ago I had a 4 speed 3 SYN gearbox lock up after descending a very steep hill, the transmission was locked and the gearlever firmly stuck in bottom. I've heard of a couple of other cases of this happening. Removal of the gearbox top allowed the gearbox to be put into neutral with a crow bar accompanied with the 2 gear synchro balls flying everywhere. The box was drained and the balls collected and we proceeded on our way. The only way back was up the steep hill and I soon learnt to balance the power versus the effort required to keep it in bottom.