screwed clutch or gearbox
screwed clutch or gearbox
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Discussion

trooperiziz

Original Poster:

9,457 posts

281 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
afternoon

Picked up the Cerb today after having the engine rebuilt and decided to drive it back up to Newcastle to help run it in.

250 miles later and I'm sitting on the hard shoulder of the M1...

Car started to feel weird, as if the throttle cable was sticking, car would over rev when stationary and using th throttle and it would take ages for the revs to come back down, when driving and taking your foot off the throttle, the car would take a second or two to start dropping revs.
I assumed this was a slipping clutch or throttle cable problem, then bang. Lost all drive, engine was spinning and reacting to the throttle ok, but it wasn't driving the wheels any more.
Coasted to a halt on the hard shoulder, with what sounded like the gearbox rattling around.
I can't select any gears anymore, but I can push the car around with the clutch depressed.

I didn't have the clutch or gearbox replaced when the engine was done.

Any ideas, is it likely to be the clutch or the gearbox? Where do the newcastle Cerb owners go to have their cars worked on?

trackcar

6,453 posts

255 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
if the clutch disengages drive it sounds like a gearbox failure .. were you in 5th at the time? 5th gear is hte fragile one, but usually doesn't affect the other gears so you cna drive the car home or to a garage .. until bits of 5th find their way into the front part of the gearbox casing anyway. I know one person who drove all the way back from le mans in 4th gear when 5th gear broke on his cerbera.

the throttle problem sounds completely separate and unrelated to this other failure.

olly

2,174 posts

313 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
trooperiziz - BAD luck mate !

Was chatting to Jo earlier & he mentioned you'd just got it back & had problems already !

As Joolz said, sounds like you have 2 problems, but the immediate one sounds like 5th has gone bang (I know 2 people that have had this happen to & your the 3rd) - if you've not driven it far, damage should be too bad. And it's all caused by a weak split pin holding 5th on (apparently)!!!

SXS

3,065 posts

286 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
trooperiziz said:
Where do the newcastle Cerb owners go to have their cars worked on?


Dreadnought?.... www.dreadnought-tvr.co.uk/

HL Gorner Ltd.
Wigan Road,
Ashton-in-Makerfield,
Wigan WN4 8LY
Tel: 01942 717373

www.hlgornertvr.co.uk

Hexham Horseless
Carriages
Hexham
Tel: 01434 601 66

www.tvr-hhc.co.uk

Extra 300 Driver

5,282 posts

275 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
Bad luck. I would suspect the two faults are unrelated too.

The first does sound like a badly adjusted throttle cable, or perhaps its started to get cuaght n the sleeve. The second sounds more serious.

It has to ne gearbox related. You say the engine revs and sounds normal (do you still have the sticking throttle), so that must mean the flywheel and clutch assy are all ok, or at lease still attached. Can you select any gears? Even when the engine is off does the selection of gears feel normal in any way? How does the clutch pedel feel?

My total guesses would be;

Prop shaft gone

Input shaft from the engine failed

Gearbox broken up inside



But one thing i would do is get it back to the place the rebuilt the engine! The gearbox has to come away from the engine to get it out so they 'could' have not refilled it with oil, so check that out. Also get someone indepenent to look at it, if you can.

Remember you have at least 28 days warranty on all work carried out during the engine rebuild, not just the engine its self.

trooperiziz

Original Poster:

9,457 posts

281 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
I was in 5th and was going to get the gearbox refurbished when I had run the car in as I had a crunching synchro between 1st and 2nd! Ah well.
I can't select any other gears though, so the damage is likely to be quite severe I'm guessing.

I'll get them to check the throttle cable routing at the same time.

trooperiziz

Original Poster:

9,457 posts

281 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
Yup, after having thought through my options I'm going to send it back to the place that did the engine and see what the diagnosis is.

robscim

840 posts

285 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
Olly,

"As Joolz said, sounds like you have 2 problems, but the immediate one sounds like 5th has gone bang (I know 2 people that have had this happen to & your the 3rd) "

Put me down as number 4

Rob


purpleheadedcerb

1,143 posts

251 months

Sunday 9th October 2005
quotequote all
Sorry to hear that.

Do you get any warning before it lets go? Does it happen if you are giving it some stick in 5th?

Looking through the receipt file that came with mine, it had a new gearbox 5000 miles ago (at 50,000 miles) and that was put down to low gearbox oil level. This was despite it having been serviced at the correct intervals.

Hope you are covered by some sort of warranty.



350matt

3,895 posts

308 months

Monday 10th October 2005
quotequote all
When 5th gear lets go what is it that breaks?, is it the gear picking up on the shaft?

Matt