My best guess would be that something is amiss with the reverse actuator,
causing the lever to be pulled away from the slot in the reverse gear. I
think that the lever would still push the gear into some activation but
could not take it out. Could be a broken locating pin on the lever, wear on
the lever itself or wear on the slotted doo-hickey on the selector rod that
slides over the lever. When you pull a cover, these things move around and
it may have looked like it came apart normally, when it was actually off.
Bob Kramer
TR6, TR4A, TR4
Hill Country Triumph Club
Corinthians Vintage Auto Racing
rgk@flash.net
----- Original Message -----
From: <BillDentin@aol.com>
To: <fot@autox.team.net>
Cc: <kdpotter@netwurx.net>
Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 10:10 AM
Subject: TRANSMISSION LOCK UP
> 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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