• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

BJ7 Transmission re-install

Share this page

L

LanceLyon

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
Hi All,

I removed the transmission and engine for a ground-up restoration 3 years ago and have just re-installed the re-built engine and the un-touched transmission. When car came apart the gearbox shifted perfectly, but upon re-installation I can't get the gear lever to move from the 1-2 throw gate. I can not get it into the reverse gate or over to the 3-4 gate.

Any thoughts or experience will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!
 
lyonlance, i could see this problem happening if perhaps someone removed the top cover for a peek inside, think back, did you or anyone else do this?
 
Did you by chance take the bell housing off? There is a buffer pad that keeps the 3 shift rods from hyper extending as it were. If the pad fell out, that may be the problem.
 
No, the bell housing remained attached to the gearbox and the OD remained attached to the gearbox as well. All that happened was that the case was cleaned up and painted.
 
It's possible that the shaft fitted to the inside of the side cover (side-shift trans) has gotten stuck from no oil splashing around. Easy enough to take the cover off and knock it free.

I expect a similar statement could be made about the control shaft under the top cover of a center-shift trans.
 
Hi Lance,

I now have a soft spot for guys with Tranny problems, being I have to R&R mine 5 times. I ran your situation by my mechanic. Here's his reply.

My knee jerk response is clutch. If he rebuilt the engine he had to split the gearbox/ engine package and access the clutch. Maybe the clutch is not operating exactly right, -clutch disc installed backwards, insufficient clutch hydraulic operation, something. Quick check is rear wheels in the air, parking brake off, car in gear, engine off. Try spinning driveshaft by hand while in gear (it shouldn't), then try with clutch pedal depressed (it should). If clutch operation is OK he'll be able to spin driveshaft by hand with clutch depressed and even feel the point of engagement.

Otherwise maybe the shift lever was pranged (something fell on it or something) and it got a bent shift rod or fork while being stored. My money is on the clutch.

Best of luck,
Roger
 
Hi Roger,

Well, the clutch scenario won't play because I can shift between the two gears and move the car doing so. Clutch works fine. The second scenario might make sense however, because taking the engine our with the tranny attached the shift lever did hang up on the firewall opening, bending the lever a little toward the rear as it was raised with the hoist.

I guess the next question would be to find out the procedure for checking out the shift rod and fork. Perhaps start by lifting the top cover off? It's a center shift.
 
Hi Lance,

When removing the gearbox cover, be careful of the three springs that hold the ball bearings, in the front area of the gearbox cover. While the cover is off, take a look at the bottom of the cover. Move the shifter. If it's really hard to shift, the rod may be bent. For good measure, glance at the top of the gearbox cover and see what condition the bush assembly is in.

Good luck,
Roger
 
Well, question partially solved! The reason the shift lever was not only bent a little on the way out but also still attached was that now I remember trying to remove it at the time of the engine and tranny removal (3 years ago, wow). I recall trying to drive the roll pins out as described in the repair manual without luck, and so just leaving the lever in place.

As it turns out, the pins, which are supposed to be able to enter a chamber in the ball-end of the lever, are now up against the channels on the left and right side of the ball, keeping it from rotating right od left. With the cover off (and one of the springs retrieved from the inside of the gearbox with a magnet!) I have tried once again to drive the roll pins into the chamber, but to no luck. It would appear that either the pins are not lining up with the chamber or that there isnt one! I'm afraid to continue to try to drive them out and I am considering trying to drill them out.

Anyone have any experience or thoughts? Thanks!

Lance
 
lyonlance, you must have wacked that thing but good, from what your telling us it sounds as if the roll pins are bent from the impact, i think youll be drilling them out. you should be able to see them if they are there, use a magnifying glass.
 
Hi Lance, I just reinstalled the shift lever in my BJ7. If you use a small punch, about 1/8", you should be able to drive the roll pins into the ball shaft. You must first place the lever in neutral with the spring, washer, and internal spring lock washer in place. You might have to wiggle the lever a bit. As was mentioned you can see the roll pins. When replacing use a 3/16" roll pin.
Oh, I forgot to mention that when you reinstall the roll pins they should in fact engage the channels, but not go into the shaft. This will allow you to move the lever left and right and yet prevent the lever from being pulled out of the socket.
 
Well, for what it's worth here is the final episode. As it turns out, someone who removed the lever before had replaced the roll pins with ones that were too long to clear the housing once they were driven as far as they could go into the shift lever holes. I ended up drilling out the pins with great care not wanting to damage the pin holes in the aluminum housing. What an ordeal!
 
LyonLance said:
Well, for what it's worth here is the final episode. As it turns out, someone who removed the lever before had replaced the roll pins with ones that were too long to clear the housing once they were driven as far as they could go into the shift lever holes. I ended up drilling out the pins with great care not wanting to damage the pin holes in the aluminum housing. What an ordeal!
Click to expand...
How unfortunate for you; rollpins tend to be quite hard!
 
Back
Top