Gearbox stiff ?

[MGMinky]

If you have been following the recent posts you will see that we (myself and my partner Corin) have just become the proud new owners of a Midget , the car is great but there is one queary , it has had , according to history , a recent 'Goldseal' gearbox fitted with a new B&B clutch but I am finding it very stiff trying to engage first gear , once it's up and running , no problem , is this normal or is there something we can do to sort it , the gear oil has been changed.

Thanks.

[tedebear]

hi there - not sure if you have had midgets before? 1st is a stationary gear - you can only engage first when standing dead still!! No synchro mesh!!

Having just had my gearbox rebuilt at considerable expense it has also made for a tight slow change - should loosen up somewhat but still a bit stiff...

[colin m]

I had a G/box a bit like this in an RS2000 once, when it was cold, engaging 1st or 2nd was difficult. But as I think you say, once warm it was ok. That RS G/box never went wrong, hopefully yours will be the same.

Cheers
Colin M

[corin denton]

Nope , by up and running I mean shifting through the box , actually gets worse when warm!!

[filmidget]

Trying to think laterally... clutch dragging slightly?

The clutch slave cylinder is a sod to bleed, and the clevis pin hole at the top of the pedal can go oval.

Would make changing a touch tricky, esp. in the lower gears.

EDIT: ties in with the 'worse when warm' bit as well.

Cheers, Phil



>> Edited by filmidget on Friday 2nd May 08:38

[corin denton]

Changed oil , changed and bled hydraulics to the extent of removing master cylinder and hanging it from bonnet , when the inspection cover is off on the inner wing it would appear that there should be more travel on the master cylinder piston thus giving more pedal.

[huge_ego]

tedebear said:

hi there - not sure if you have had midgets before? 1st is a stationary gear - you can only engage first when standing dead still!! No synchro mesh!! Having just had my gearbox rebuilt at considerable expense it has also made for a tight slow change - should loosen up somewhat but still a bit stiff...

Hi Justine,

Forgive me if you know this, but you can still change gear without it having synchromesh by double declutching, i.e. place it in neutral and match revs to engine speed before engaging the next gear. (Even with synchromesh, this produces a more mechanically sympathetic gear change assuming you match the revs correctly.)

As I mentioned on another post, this is fairly well explained Margaret Stacey's Advanced Driver's Handbook, as is the sustained revs gear change (or Power Downchange, as the author terms it):
www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0749415010/qid=1056568944/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_0_1/202-7628478-3756668

Cheers,

Huge

[tedebear]

Cheers Huge - was aware of this but its taken some time to work out the optimal engine speed /revs to down change...and given the considerable expense I've paid for the gearbox rebuild, I've been a little hesitant to crunch the gears to try and find the correct point..but slowly learning now...

unfortunately not going to get through MOT at the moment due to some rust in the drivers footwell, which enables me to see the road - so must get welding and get it sorted...

[huge_ego]

tedebear said:

Cheers Huge - was aware of this but its taken some time to work out the optimal engine speed /revs to down change...and given the considerable expense I've paid for the gearbox rebuild, I've been a little hesitant to crunch the gears to try and find the correct point..but slowly learning now...

Hi Justine,

Yeah, I too have experienced the "getting the revs right" thing, though pretty much sorted now. The best bet is to err on the side over overestimating the number of revs. Too few can crunch the gear change as you say, but too many revs at least avoids this.

A couple of ways of judging the revs. Have a look at the rev counter, so that you get to know how many revs you need for a given speed in each gear. (Sounds obvious, doesn't it? But you'd be amazed how long I took to do this! D'oh!) Or simply listen to the engine at different speeds in different gears (which is what I now do to get it right).

Have fun and hope you get the rust sorted,

Huge