Jack Stehr tells me know everything there is to know about MG
transmissions, so I'm appealing to you for help. Here's what I posted
on the MG enthusiasts Web page:
I did some revision on the remote gear shift housing, and now I'm
having problems shifting gears.
The whole story (or to paraphrase Walt Kelly, we have met the DPO
and he is us.) A couple of years ago, when I removed the engine for a
rebuild I had problems
separating the remote housing from the gearbox. I didn't realize at
the time that I had the later model, which has a "bearing" in the back
of the housing for the third and
fourth gear shaft. After some work with a crow bar I finally got the
housing separated from the transmission, and probably bent the shaft.
When it came time for
re-assembly, I got the whole thing together, took a test drive and
found I couldn't get into either third or fourth gear. I did some
modification of the bearing, which is
actually just a cup the bolts onto the back of the remote housing,
and got it to work. It served me well for about 10,000 miles with what
I considered to be a
reasonable amount of resistance between gears.
Recently, I decided to attack the problem of leaking transmission
fluid. I traced the problem to this repair, and to the fact that I had
not put a gasket between the
remote housing and the gearbox. The two ears had broken off of the
cup bearing, and I managed to fix it with a piece of quarter inch
steel between the bearing and the
gearbox, some epoxy and make-a-gasket goo. I drilled out the cup to
give the shaft extra clearance, and fabricated a cork gasket to go
between the remote housing
and gearbox.
Now that it is all back together, the problem is in down shifting.
It shifts easily from first to second, and reasonably easy into third
and then to fourth. I have to search for
the proper "gate" into third. Trying to shift from fourth to second
is impossible, nor will it go back into first after I stop. It usually
won't go back into third then, either and
after a number of L and H shaped maneuvers I'm finally able to get
back into second and first. I've already broken the wooden shift knob,
and my hand is pretty sore. If
the lever to the remote shift isn't properly seated, I shouldn't be
able to go through the gears at all. If the third and fourth gear
shaft is binding I shouldn't be able to get
into either of those gears. Something happens when the lever engages
third gear that won't let it go back into the slot in the first and
second gear shaft. I'm not anxious
to take the cowl off again, but the car isn't driveable in this
condition. Any and all advice is welcome.
Andy Moyce
52 TD
-George Butz replied that it looks like the 3rd/4th shaft is binding
in the cup bearing, keeping it from aligning with the other shafts.
This prevents the lever from the remote from moving laterally to
engage either of the other shafts. This seems logical to me. If I
did the bend the 3rd/4th shaft, I don't see any way to work on it
without dismantling the whole transmission. I think I need to work at
further modifying the cup bearing on the back of the housing. Does
this makes sense to you?
Thank you for your help.
Andy
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