5th Gear Vanished!

[mrciarano]

Just been cruising along with a friend at a reasonable making progress double digit speed when suddenly, I lost 5th gear. Gearbox is a T5. Doesn't look to be leaking any fluids when parked up - so hopefully it's not something utterly catastrophic. I hadn't been particularly harsh on the gearbox - just in cruise for about 10 minutes when suddenly there was no power to the rear wheels! It had been up to temperature as it had been out on a run for about an hour prior to 5th letting go.
Sounds like a gearbox out and refurbish job to me, what I want to know from you folks is:
- Is this common?
- How can I prevent this happening again in the future?
- How much is it going to set me back (already guessing 4 figures)? I'm based in the North of England.
- Is it going to cause further damage if I have to drive the car (assuming I use nothing but 1-4 and reverse)
TIA :-)

[rigga]

Yes its a known issue as I recall, circlip has come adrift and the gear has wandered
Rebuild and there is a mod to prevent it happening again.

[TwinKam]

Speak to Ukkid on the Cerbera forum, he has rebuilt his own and knows the mods available.

[phazed]

I lost fifth gear on my old chim on the way to a drag meeting. As said above, if you are lucky fifth gear parts company with its shaft and floats to the bottom of the box.

I decided to brave the fact that the gear wasn't going anywhere and had 17–18 good runs at the strip that day. Returned the 120 miles home ready for box to be removed.

Send gearbox to one of the known guys like Readman Racing or Competition Gearboxes.

Cost with the modification will probably be £400–£500 from memory. I took the opportunity to have all bearings renewed to Future Proof the box.

On the other hand, I believe Barrie's, (longbaz) fifth gear let go and completely lunched his gearbox! On reflection I was very lucky.

[Englishman]

I've lost 5th gear twice. First was in a Griff 500, where I just drove it to a garage and got it fixed (the gear was probably at the bottom of gearbox out of the way), second was in a Sagaris where the gearbox made some noise and totally seized a few seconds later causing the rear wheels to lock at speed on the M5 putting me into a spin - not a pleasant experience!

[Hedgehopper]

phazed said:

Send gearbox to one of the known guys like Readman Racing or Competition Gearboxes.

After a local TVR ‘specialist’ failed to successfully repair my gearbox I went to Lloyd’s Special Developments to take the box out and send it to Readman Racing. They are T5 specialists and have the knowledge and all the spares, very pleased with the result.

[mrciarano]

Thanks folks - I managed to drive home a further 10 minutes fairly uneventfully in 4th so that's at least comforting. I don't have the means to pull the box out (assuming it can drop out of the bottom easily) myself as my MX-5 is pinching my jacks going through welding and suspension repairs at the moment - how much would I expect to spend at a specialist like HHC (30 milesish from me) for the full monty box out box in and repairs/modification?