sloppy Gate / engaging 3rd Gear

[dellyend1]

One of the not so perfect quirks of the new wedge is that the gate / selection of 3rd gear is very sloppy in that it takes some practice to change up from 2nd to 3rd as you have to guide it in manually rather than just pushing diagonally up and right which would engage it automatically. I hope that makes sense.

Question is , how do I stiffen / tighten up this gear selection, is there a particular linkage or bush that is suspect and a common problem.

Apologies if I have not articulated this very well

Cheers

Jeremy

[Convert]

Could be the remote housing bushes. There are a couple of bolts / 4/8 bushes that attach the remote gearshift to the box, and a couple of bolts that go through a saddle mouning (4 bushes).

These do wear out.

I couldn't drop from 3rd to second, not just stiff, it wouldn't go in (fnar fnar).

Changing these bushes made a world of difference.

these were the ones I fitted.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triumph-TR7-TR8-LT77-GEA...

[simon_h]

I'm no expert on this topic but I guess it depends on whether you have wear and tear on the bush / linkage or if it's a case of adjustment of the bias spring. You did mention the word sloppy so that would suggest that former. However, there is a bias spring on top of the gearbox extension housing which assists in algning the stick with the gate for 3rd / 4th. The horizontal ends of the spring rest upon a a "T" shaped extension from the sides of the pivot ball around which the gear leaver pivots. There are also a pair of bolts which are screwed into the extension housing that can be adjusted to raise or lower the ends of the bias spring and thus center the gear selection mechanism in the 3rd / 4th gear plane. If these adjustments bolts are not correctly adjusted you will find that you have to force the stick left or right rather than have it naturally fall into gear.

At the bottom of the pivot ball there is a vertical shaft that engages with a steel / nylon bush and if this has been coated in the usual mixture of oil and stuff then it can wear quite badly.

whipping off the transmisson tunnel cover and having a good look is easy enough so that's probably your best bet.

And as the previous post mentioned the extension can go out of alignment if the mounting bushes are buggered.


Simon.

Edited by simon_h on Saturday 11th August 00:19

[Hamish400]

I had a sort of similar problem with the gearchange of my 400SE. I cannot remember which gear was affected or the exact details(abt 12 years ago now).

The problem was one of the metal bushes in the casting of the gear lever extension housing was mis-placed/missing. This meant that the the selector shaft linking the gear lever to the gearbox was poorly located.

The bushing is about 1.5mm or 2mm wall thickness, so you need to look closely to see it.
Coreful comparison between the two selector shaft locations/bearings showed 1 bush in the correct location 1 missing.

I suggest if you do not find anything obvious with extension mounting bushes etc you look closely at the selector shaft in the extension housing and see if both bushes are there.

If I recall correctly I made a replacement bush from phosphor bronze.

Best regards
Hamish

[dellyend1]

Cheers All,

That's great advice. Having read all the replies I think that I am going to wait for winter for this job and do a complete overhaul. With the very few and far between days of sun , I'd go mad if I started the job and then the sun came out for 10 mins

Owned the wedge a week and loving it !!

[Convert]

The whole job took me about an hour.

[dellyend1]

That sounds a bit less ominous than I thought. Can I confirm that the bushes need to be replaced from working underneath the car or can you do this with the transmission tunnel cover removed ?

Cheers

[Wedg1e]

Far easier from underneath.

[Convert]

dellyend1 said:

That sounds a bit less ominous than I thought. Can I confirm that the bushes need to be replaced from working underneath the car or can you do this with the transmission tunnel cover removed ?

Cheers

You can confirm from above. Remove transmission tunnel cover / gearstick gaiters. Then grab the gearstick and light it. If just the stick moves, then the bushes are fine, and the socket for the gearstick needs looking at. If the whole remote housing moves, then you need to tighten / replace the remote linkage bushes.

I found a long socket and extension were good for the top mountings, and a ratchet ring spanner for the saddle bolts.

[dellyend1]

Hi All,

sorry to be a pain, but having poked around with the transmission cover on my wedge I can get it to lift at the back but it appears to be fixed to the full dashboard. My wedge has the SEAC dash so no centre box section for the radio etc.

Anybody out there able to confirm or otherwise that the transmission tunnel cover is / is not a one piece item and can be split. It appears somewhat non logical idea to not be able to lift a transmission cover without taking the whole dash out, but hey we are talking TVR

Anybody who has a seac dash and has removed the tunnel cover I would welcome any pearls of wisdom. Two weeks of wedge ownership and wanting to learn fast !

Thanks

Jeremy

[adam quantrill]

The top cover goes under the dash but it won't give you access to the bolts you have to undo if you need to replace the bushes. You have to do this from underneath.

Just grab the gearstick for now and pull upwards with a few pounds force. If it moves up and down, by more than 5mm, the bushes are knackered.

[Wedg1e]

Here's a pic that shows how close the gearshift extension is to the propshaft, you can see how it doesn't take much slop in the bushes before things start colliding...

[dellyend1]

Cheers Guys,

Pulled the gear stick up quite firmly and it lifted at least 10mm so I have ordered a set of Poly bushes and shall go exploring underneath the car at the weekend.

Is there anything else I need to know ? Are there any specific torque settings when replacing the bushes.

Thanks once again and appreciate all your patience

[dellyend1]

Hi All,

Just to close out the thread and offer info / newly sort info to future wedge owners.

I inspected the remote assembly bushes and found that the inner bushes of the saddle on both sides were missing, completely eroded !! I have now replaced all eight bushes with Poly bushes.

This made the gear change better but did not completely correct the issue. I then went through the adjustment procedure of the spring bias in 3rd as per the attached link and hey presto ! One happy gear change !!

Links and info I found useful attached : http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/gearindex.htm

Cheers All

[KKson]

simon_h said:

At the bottom of the pivot ball there is a vertical shaft that engages with a steel / nylon bush and if this has been coated in the usual mixture of oil and stuff then it can wear quite badly.

Edited by simon_h on Saturday 11th August 00:19

Hi all, still having trouble with selecting 3rd gear on my 350i. I've found an early post from 2012 that the previous owner started when he had similar issues. A new set of bushes and re-setting the spring bias appeared to cure the issue at the time.

I've got to the top of the box and tried re-setting the bias springs again but no real improvement. Looking at the actual gear stick bottom ball joint this was stiff, notchy and horrible and was covered in old grease with the consistency of tar. I've cleaned it all up but the issue seems to lie within the ball joint itself, with the gear stick not self-centreing but catching on the neutral gate. I'm off to get two new Toyos on the front first thing and will then pull the gear stick out for a thorough inspection of what lies beneath.

In the previous thread from 2012 Simon H refers to the steel/nylon bush. Does anyone know if these are available and if so from where? Also what should be the correct lubricant if any in the gear stick "cup"?

Thanks.

[350zwelgje]

For the gear change to work, a plunjer is needed.


It is sits within a spring and to assemble it all it is the 3 hands etc type of job.
If it is missing, probably putting that in place should improve things.
You can check if it is there by unbolting the gearstick as it should be in the ball part of the if, just below the cap that holds the stick down.

Don't know about the bush as haven't had any issues with that it before.

Rob

[V8 Fettler]

The 2nd to 3rd shift is baulky on an LT77 in a Wedge with gearshift linkage bushes of unknown vintage. The alignment is different to the daily droning diesel, more towards the steering wheel than the wireless on the central console. Left elbow up and back helps.