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MG MGA - now rev.is ok

Well Fletcher I tried to take your advice and learn to live with reverse jumping out,and coupled with quirky general operation, it was eating at me. The problems are now sorted. A one sixteenth turn on the clamp bolt on the remote shaft at the gear lever end transformed the box ! A frind suggested that there appared to be a little too much fore and aft movement in the gear lever. With the top off everything looked ok untill I jamed the shift rod and saw that the clamp was allowing about 1 sixteenth movement ,foreward and back ,also side to side for selection. the bolt was tight and gritting my teeth I forced it tighter to clamp it. Result joy ! The rev. problem was that it was not going in fully and the rest must have been selectors binding. There has got to be a moral to this story some where. Sean
S Sherry

It is generally assumed, however incorrectly, that those who assemble check such things! Seems to me that if it really was 1/16" lost motion that that is not enough to account for it though, since there is about 1/2" of rod/gear movement involved in putting it in reverse. Perhaps it was not quite letting the detent engage, but even that seems borderline at best, since that would be about 1/8" minimum to not drop in. Are you certain that the split bush at the bottom of the stick was/is correctly fitted? But, good luck!

FRM
FR Millmore

Maybe it was a little more than a sixteenth Fletcher. THe bolt was tight and there never was a problem with Reverse before the box was dismantled, I had no reason to suspect that the clamp was not clamped and only picked it up by locking the rod and applying pressure on the g/lever. And yes, the detent ball was not dropping in. The mistery to me is that this smallish loss of movement had such a detremental effect with the other shifts particularally the 1-2 .
Again thanks for all your comments in the past Sean
S Sherry

Sean, I found that clamp bolt loose on my remote when I had the power unit out last year. It is probably one of those things that works loose with use. It would be easy to condemn the whole gearbox for the sake of something silly like that. My standard gearbox is lovely and slick since I tightened that thing up.
Lindsay Sampford

Thanks Linsay, I was in dispair after having had the box out twice and finding nothing wrong with my first O/H. The clutch release lever release arm was not doing it's job so it had to come out anyway. The shifting was actually much worse, I could not understand it. As you say, clamping the fitting transformed the box. There is after all justice in the world. Sean
S Sherry

This thread was discussed on 25/08/2010

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