Amici:
The week end before last at GRATTAN, the transmission in the Thunder Bolt
locked up. Bob Wismer's description of what happened follows:
<< I am driving the Tornado Thunderbolt this year and had a strange
transmission problem at Grattan. When I tried to back out of the tent for a
track session, the transmission "locked up." The shift selector would only
go in reverse but the car would not move in any direction. We tried all kinds
of things but it appeared to be in reverse and a forward gear at the same
time. Shift forks do not appear bent and the only sign of abnormal wear is on
the reverse gear. Any ideas? >>
To amplify Bob's description, the car was 'locked in gear.' The shift handle
seemed to be in neutral, but it was not a normal feeling. It seemed slightly
bound up. When Bob says the only gear we could get it into was reverse, that
is so, but it too was not a normal feeling, and it did not feel like it was
going all the way in. You could not take it out of gear. The clutch would
still disengage the transmission, and we could push the car with the clutch
in. When we removed the top cover (we did this back at the shop, as it is a
big deal on the Thunder Bolt), everything appeared to be in order. Gear
lever, shift rods, selector forks all appeared to be fine. We were able to
shift gears by hand. Reverse gear shows some abnormal wear on the engine
side. But we can find nothing else wrong. All bearings and tolerances look
fine. We wish we could find something broken, so we could fix it, but all
appears normal.
Anyone ever had this happen?
Any ideas?
We're off to WATKINS GLEN in a week.
Bill Dentinger
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