Gianni Barbados

1982 5 speed Euro (Australia)

So a little while back my manual transmission completely jammed in neutral with no shifter movement possible. Here is the full story and thread for more detail if required- https://rennlist.com/forums/928-forum/913477-manual-trans-stuck-in-neutral-not-front-ball-cup-or-rear-coupling.html

I have finally managed to remove the trans and look inside - this is what I found:

Lots of green goop. Not really sure if I need to be concerned about this? Looks like moisture contamination? I have no idea if this is normal or not.






Here is a pic of the real culprit though:



Selector Rods are out of alignment.

This is why I could not select any gears. The shift finger should be lined up with the notch in the selector rod underneath it. Like this:





It took all of 2 mins to figure out and fix, but the bigger problem is, how could this happen?? Is there something else broken that allowed the misalignment? It might be worth mentioning that I remember the trans popping out of gear as I put too much pressure on the gear lever before the clutch was fully depressed. I have done this before but it never resulted in the gearbox completely jamming.


Also, here is what the reverse gear lock looked like when I opened the case:






So here are my questions:

Has something broken in the gearbox to allow the selector rods to be misaligned in this way?

Since I have the gearbox out, what other jobs should I definitely do / consider doing

As always, any advice is warmly welcomed. Thanks in advance!

mark kibort

As i mentioned in the other thread, this is exactly the problem.. the sliders are not linged up with the selector, because the gear selector arms are out of alignment. this is the cause of the poping out of gear and the lock out. take some pics from further away so we can see the alignment . i suppose to get the car out of the "neutral lock out" you just pushed the shift rod forward to line the selector up... now it should go through all the gears fine ............on the bench, right? However, the problem is not solved. if the gear slector arms are not lined up near perfectly, this kind of problem that you experienced will happen again, as well as the "popping out of gear " issue.
the problem is that with the missalinmenent, the shift selector arms release the shift rods too early, leving it stuck inthat gear , even though you are reaching another gear. when it releases the shift rod, it might snap back (because there is spirng loading) and reengage that gear or no gear and then your shifter is in no-man's-land. so, take some pics and get back to us on the shift selector arm alignment. see my thread on the fix as well.

Gianni Barbados

Yep. Exactly. No issues with any of the gears now.

Good to know on the "popping out of gear issue". I had noticed this a few times and it seemed pretty random but mostly between 2nd and 3rd I think. Even though I am sure it will be a lot faster for me to get the box out next time..... I will be in no mood for there to be a next time any time soon. It needs to go to someone for a "pro" style adjustment before I put it back.


Will get back to it later today and post pics then. Thanks again for your insights Mark.

I will have a hunt around the forums today, but in your opinion, are there any maintenance items that are a "must do" while the box is out?

mark kibort

so, like i said, the lock out issue, when you move the one selectror rail, will seemed fixed.... your rigiht to be cautious, its not fixed.. the fact that it got in that situation is a product of the slelector arms being slighly out of positon , forward or to the rear of the box. try and replcate the problem by putting things in the wrong spots and see if you can get it to do it again. you shouldn't be able to if it is adjusted correctly. my gear selector arm was out of alignment , from the factory, by about .25" and that was enough to cause a huge problem of lockout AND the gear wouldnt engage fully, so that it popped out when there was no force on the gear box driveline. (like neutral throttle)

so, i would try engage the gear that pops out, and look at engagement distance of the arms on the sliders. what gear was it that popped out? 1st?
if you find my thread, there are a lot of details and pictures there.

once you find the pop out problem, the lock out problem will be fixed too and you can reinstall with confidence, as they go hand in hand.

mark kibort

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...-up-fixed.html

mark kibort

what gear was it popping out of.. that is key to figuring out what shift selector lever is out of adjustment

Gianni Barbados

Brilliant info to have a this stage of the repair. Thanks Mark. I don't seem to have the same bolts on mine but maybe it is still possible? I did go looking for the thread as you suggested but hadn't found this one yet.

It was occasionally popping out of 2nd gear as I was changing to 3rd. This is when the lockup issue happened for me also (although mine locked in neutral not in gear)

Also this from your thread:

"It looks like the reason that the lock out problem fixed the pop out of gear problem, because there is a spring loaded keeper pin at the front of the transmission. if the slider bar doesn't move far enough, its between the 2nd and neutral spots. (there are 3 spots under the keeper spring for 2nd, neutral and 3rd). by moving the shift fork by 5mm, it now properly aligned the indentation spots on the slider shaft, so that it cant pop out of 2nd under no load conditions."

My mechanic also suggested springs could be too weak on mine which may have contributed to the problem. Not sure if he talking about the same thing but yeah, that's on the repair list now too.

Now the pics from further away. 1st one is how I found it, 2nd is how it should have been.





It is the notch in the selector rod on the right being misaligned with the shift finger that caused the box to lock up