5 speed box a cautionary Tale!

[roughground]

A wise man learns from other peoples mistakes! So I hope this is of value. 

I was concerned about a vibration through the car and particularly through the gear stick. So investigated underneath and found the remote gear change was sagging enough to rest on the prop-shaft!

Further investigation revealed that the bushes attaching the remote to the gear box had disintegrated completely. So ordered new poly bushes from Robsport and removed the old ones. Mistake!

I replaced the bushes and bolted the remote back again only to find I could not select any gears. The stick moved but didn't do anything. Visions of removing the engine etc broke out the cold sweat of "what had I done wrong" . A closer look underneath showed that the gearbox selector was not connected to the remote change. It had slipped off whilst being moved about. I was very lucky that further manipulation got the selector to slip back onto the selector shaft. Huge relief.  I then carefully bolted the remote back again and all was well. 

With the new bushes I find the gear change to be much crisper and easier. (I had thought the difficulty in getting it across to reverse was down to ageing but it was simply the amount of play in the remote change). 

Lesson learnt don't remove all the bolts at once, slacken them all off to be able to slide in the rear bush but only change one at a time. Then tighten everything back up.Job done!

[RogerH]

Haven't got a clue as to what you have done but you clearly learn a great deal in doing it.  Nice one.

 

Roger

[Wayne Scott]

On 11/15/2020 at 5:25 PM, roughground said:

A wise man learns from other peoples mistakes! So I hope this is of value. 

I was concerned about a vibration through the car and particularly through the gear stick. So investigated underneath and found the remote gear change was sagging enough to rest on the prop-shaft!

Further investigation revealed that the bushes attaching the remote to the gear box had disintegrated completely. So ordered new poly bushes from Robsport and removed the old ones. Mistake!

I replaced the bushes and bolted the remote back again only to find I could not select any gears. The stick moved but didn't do anything. Visions of removing the engine etc broke out the cold sweat of "what had I done wrong" . A closer look underneath showed that the gearbox selector was not connected to the remote change. It had slipped off whilst being moved about. I was very lucky that further manipulation got the selector to slip back onto the selector shaft. Huge relief.  I then carefully bolted the remote back again and all was well. 

With the new bushes I find the gear change to be much crisper and easier. (I had thought the difficulty in getting it across to reverse was down to ageing but it was simply the amount of play in the remote change). 

Lesson learnt don't remove all the bolts at once, slacken them all off to be able to slide in the rear bush but only change one at a time. Then tighten everything back up.Job done!

Great tip ! I did the same with mine. Another one is don’t forget the metal spacers that pass through the bushes and also to renew the cup in the gear stick socket - the new poly remote bushes make that gear shift so much nicer! 

 

[qkingston]

Hi Wayne, can you clarify the gearstick cup - polybush comment?

Thank you

David

[Wayne Scott]

7 hours ago, qkingston said:

Hi Wayne, can you clarify the gearstick cup - polybush comment?

Thank you

David

Hi David,

Sure - I used the poly versions of the remote housing bushes: https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-UKC854POLY transformed the gear shift. ALthough, I used the Superpro ones from Robsport, seemed better quality to me. 

Also, worth checking this isn't mashed: https://rimmerbros.com/Item--i-UKC9338 

[Chris59]

This happen rather often on 5 speed TR7/8.

With good quality polyurethane bushes, no more problems.

BTW, everything can be done from underneath, it's not even necessary to move the exhaust.

[Melcoagain]

I did the bushes from underneath on my 8. But its more awkward due to twin exhausts. I was in a hurry and actually cut down some grommets i had. In my case the symptom was difficult gear selection. The original bushes had gone hard and crumbled away.

Glad you fixed it.