In a message dated 97-06-25 12:06:39 EDT, vafred@erols.com (fred thomas)
writes:
> Dan, I understand what your manual says, BUT, if you do not lift-up no
> reverse, manual or not that's the way it is.
Fred:
Right or wrong, whatever the reason, I have driven the car over 30,000 miles,
and have yet to lift for reverse. I have no idea what is correct, or why I
don't need to lift with my car, I only know that I don't.
HOWEVER! After writing the above, I went to the garage to try the lifting
technique, and found that the transmission went into reverse much smoother if
I lifted.
OK! Now it's personal. It's no longer just a bunch of OFs sitting around the
electronic version of the campfire swapping tales - I HAVE TO KNOW!!!!!
I have a '75 TR6 transmission in the garage, so I take the shifter apart to
see what's in there. Lo and behold, the bottom of the reverse shifter is
about 1/8 inch higher than the 1-2 and the 3-4 shifters. Now I go to look
into the various shop manuals I have. They all show the same thing - about
1/8 inch heigher. They also show a square edge on the shifter in the
drawings. The shifter in mine has a sloping edge. On close examination, it
appears to be the result of wear, rather than original machining, but it is
not conclusive. The shift lever itself, being hardened, doesn't show as much
wear, but there is a little wear on the reverse side and none on the 1-2
side. Without the slope, it would be impossible to shift into reverse without
lifting.
Conclusions? Evidently, the factory design called for lifting to go into
reverse, but over the years, wear has made it possible to shift without
lifting. Since most of us didn't own the cars when new, and the owners manual
says nothing about this, we have been shifting the hard way. Wonder why
Triumph didn't see fit to put this in the manuals? OTOH, if the slope is
intentional, not the result of wear, then it was just meant as a means of
preventing ACCIDENTAL shifting into reverse. Most manual transmissions I am
aware of have a similar feature. Does anybody have a new reverse shifter that
they can take a look at?
Conclusion #2. If any of you ever hear me say "I know" anything about these
cars, please come by and slap me until I get over it!
I won't even talk about the choke, except to say mine won't stay out if I
twist it.
Dan Masters,
Alcoa, TN
'71 TR6---------3000mile/year driver, fully restored
'71 TR6---------undergoing full restoration and Ford 5.0 V8 insertion - see:
http://www.sky.net/~boballen/mg/Masters/
'74 MGBGT---3000mile/year driver, original condition
'68 MGBGT---organ donor for the '74
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