MGTF gearbox - popping out of gear

[Zippee]

A friend of ours purchased recently a cheap (£1200) 04 plate MGTF. First glance it appears a decent car but it won't hold 5th gear, she can engage but unless she holds the gearstick in place it pops out again. Is this likely to be the gearbox itself or a (hopefully) cheaper and easier to fix widget?

[Steffan]

Could be the detent plungers and springs in the gearbox failing or stuck.

With the old Rover cars it was possible to get these out and replace. I think the gearbox on the TF is a bought in box. It may be a copy or derivative of the old Golf box from my distant memory.

Any good gearbox firm should be able to advise.

There may be a relatively simple cure.

[thatone1967]

Might be worth posting on here:
http://forums.mg-rover.org/

[MJK 24]

Rover PG1 gearbox. Not a copy of a VW box to the best of my knowledge.

They only mated VW boxes to the 1275 A series in the Maestro and Montego from memory?

[Steffan]

MJK 24 said:

Rover PG1 gearbox. Not a copy of a VW box to the best of my knowledge.

They only mated VW boxes to the 1275 A series in the Maestro and Montego from memory?

You are correct they did. The VW box is used by a lot of manufacturers its typical VW build, bullet resistant.

You may well be right about the TF box and certainly the AR site is a good place to check.

[rallycross]

We had an MR2 mk1 that used to do this in 5th. I only found out after having bought it and put it in 5th gear on the motorway on route home (no motorways on test drive!).



Not a big problem to fix though...

Get a bit of wood, cut it to size, with a nice V cut in for the gear lever, then wedge it between the gear stick and the rear bulkhead when using 5th gear.

Not ideal for track days but works just fine on the road, cost about 30p!

Alternatively take to local mechanic, horrible car to work on, remove gearbox after lots of swearing, then swallow bill for £500+.