Nobby Shark

Fellow Sharkers,,,

I drained the oil from my gearbox at the weekend and found part of the "Gear lock spring clip" attached to the front magnetic drain plug. The car (a 90GT) has been off the road since Xmas 2002 following #2 conrod failure. Draining the gearbox was just one of the final jobs I was doing prior to getting her back on the road. The car is not driveable yet but what are the implications of this clip being broken and is it worth taking down the box to replace it. How serious is it ??

Is it possible that I can put this work off and drive the car till next summer when I could remove and overhaul the Gearbox (seals bearings etc). Or is the no way I should drive the car???

Finally,,,, what exactly does this spring clip or more importantly,,,, what does the Gear Lock do and how does the spring clip relate to its operation.

Your thoughts most welcome.

Cheers, Nobby.

WallyP

The 928 shift lever is normally spring-loaded to stay in the the 2/3 plane, with light spring-loading keeping it out of the 4/5 plane, and heavy spring-loading keeping it out of the R/1 plane.

If the spring breaks you will lose one or both of these.

That doesn't keep you from driving the car - but you had better shift carefully! I certainly wouldn't let anyone else drive the car who isn't both very experienced and very careful.

Replacing the spring requires removal and complete stripping of the gearbox.

Gretch

Wally, the broken spring does not effect the reverse lockout from first, right? Course if it is the heavy spring that is broken, then you could go from 3rd to reverse if you were not careful, is that correct?

Chris

Having looked at my first gearbox (a 90GT) on Friday, there was a spring just below the top cover plate, I presume this was the one which keeps the lever out of the 4/5 plane. If this is the spring which Nobby found then you can probably replace that one with gearbox in situ. There is a small acces hole for this one on the drivers side of the gearbox.

If its any of the others you are out of luck.

Also reverse gear lockout has been found in the case of at least 2 gearboxes I have heard off.

Chris

Nobby Shark

Guys,

The spring on the shift lever action is still there. The strong resistance from neutral to 1 & R (push left) and the lesser to 4 & 5 (push right) are both still there. Someone just mailed me to say that this spring stops you shifting from 1st to Reverse, is this the case,,,, anyone know?

Along the same lines,,,, If I was to pull the box and PSD diff out,,,, with 200k on the clock,,,,, what would I replace as a matter of course. Anyone tackled this job and willing to talk about it. I'm told the gearbox is a solid as a rock. Much better than the earlier versions,,, so what if anything needs looking at?? Is there a known list of "must change" items regardless of what the manual says??

Any info welcome.

Regards.

Gretch

Nobby, The way to check it out is to shift into first gear. If, from this position you can go directly up to reverse gear, then it is your reverse lockout that is broken. When reverse lockout works, you cannot go directly to reverse, from first. Pushing the shifter forward shunts you to second gear........

Nobby Shark

Gretch,

I will try this, thanks.
Can this be changed with the box in the car???

Nobby.

Gretch

I do not believe so, WallyP is the expert here, however I believe the reverse lockout is inside the gear case..........So, if this is your problem, be very careful shifting.................................

WallyP

Hmmm...

Perhaps we are (or I am) jumping to conclusions here...

How did you identify the spring? Would it be possible to post a photo of the errant part?

Earl Gillstrom

That spring came out of my '91 GT gearbox also and I can't tell that there is any difference from my previous '88 gearbox. The reverse lockout works and this box seems to shift better than tha '88. Maybe it is redundant? There is one thing, when I shift from 4th to 5th, if I don't hold it over against the 4/5 gate it seems to run into the 3/5 gate.

Steve Cattaneo

On 1986 and up 5 speeds, when you shift from 4th to 5th, the shifter has to be pushed to the right. If you shift from first to reverse, the shifter lever has to be pulled to the left. When doing so, the tension you feel is that spring, assuming that is the spring that broke.

At minimum you should change all the syncros and bearings as needed. If I were you, I would try to flush all that metal out of that transmission. If a piece lodges between gears, the chances of breaking a tooth are great.

Earl Gillstrom

I did a little more testing: With the engine not running and the clutch in, I seem to be able to defeat the reverse lockout. Driving the car I can't defeat the lockout. I did NOT try to "speedshift". I wonder if this spring is part of the lockout, but not all of it?

Steve, This is an old known problem. Usually only a small piece of flat spring is stuck to the magnetic drain plug. Apparantly it just falls to the bottom without going through the gears or bearings. Somebody identified what it is for long ago, but I can't find any reference to it. Maybe somebody with a better memory than mine can identify it?

Nobby Shark

Guys,

This is great stuff. I will take a photo of the piece and try to post it in the morning.

Cheers.

John Veninger

Don't have a better memory, but that piece of spring seems to get attached to the magnetic drain plug at some point in all the boxes. If you change the gear oil and it's not there then:
Someone else removed it before you or your's is one of the few not broken.
Haven't heard anyone with a failure or strange shifting once it's broke.

David Schmidt

Being the *owner* of the 90GT Chris mentioned above I'll add some history to my gearbox problem.

Going to start the car one evening to return from a school event with my daughter I push in the clutch, move the shift lever from first to neutral and start the car. I release the clutch and the car lurches and stalls! (Luckily the parking brake was still on.) Double check shifter, yup, it's "loose" in neutral. Push in clutch and restart and SLOWLY let out on clutch and feel it engage!

A few moments of experimenting and I find that the shift lever will NOT move to the left into the 1st/Reverse side. It will NOT move into 2nd or 3rd gears from neutral position. The lever does move normally into 4th and 5th gears, though when in those gears the transmission is completely locked and releasing the clutch just stalls the engine.

It was a LONG 15 mile drive home in first, taking back residential streets.

Chris and I pulled the transmission last Friday and now that my muscles have recovered and I've gotten my wife to foot surgery and back (broken ankle) I'll be getting it cleaned up and start playing with the shift linkage to see if I can spot where it's binding.

First suspicion is that I'm the first documented case of the reverse lockout falling where it DOES lock something up. <sigh>

BIG thanks to Chris for his help, as I wouldn't have even dared to pull the transmission without his help. Oh, and to save others some frustration if they have to do the same job, the torque tube has *6* bolts connecting it to the transmission. Not 4.

Strangely enough, we found it difficult to remove the transmission from the torque tube with those top two bolts on top of the torque tub still connected...

David Schmidt
'90 GT two wheeler.