• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Disaster! Stuck in reverse...

Share this page

A

amphibispridget

Freshman Member
Offline
I was parallel parking in front of my building today and the car is now stuck in reverse. The gear shift moves but won't move into first or second. It feels like it hits third and fourth, but the car is actually still in reverse. Any suggestions?
 
I have no idea if you have the same problem, but you might have a look at the posting by Steve P. on Sept. 2nd., you might just get a hint from his problem and eventual solution.

Good luck
Al /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/canpatriot.GIF
 
I had a problem with a '77 midget, the pin that fits inside the groove at the base of the shift lever had backed out of the shifter extension. shift lever would rotate when "shifting" but gear select rod didn't move. stuck in fourth gear. also dust cover had shattered allowing the gearshift lever to lift out of the shift rod yoke so when moving the gear shift lever didn't translate into moving the gear shift rod in the shifter extension.
 
Remove the anti rattle plunger, pull the shifter out, and see if you can jiggle things back into place while you can see them. Line up the cutouts in the shift forks. This should be neutral. Now reinstall the shifter and the anti rattle plunger, and gently go through the gears.
Philman, different tranny entirely. The '75 and up used the Spitfire box. But, the Sprite boxes did have the pin to prevent rotation as well.

Jeff
 
Ouch! Hope you're able to get it unstuck. The problem could be related to the detents as I mentioned in my previous posting. Sure sounds like it....the way the gearshift selector works is that for htransmission to be in neutral, the three selector rods must line up exactly. If they do not for some reason, the transmission can lock up. One of the things I'd suggest trying is to rock the car back and forth (by hand) while someone else wiggles the gearshift.
Good luck!
 
No such luck. The pins seem okay. The problem doesn't appear to be in the shifter or anything on the top end of the gearbox. We've tried rocking the car and dumping the clutch, but it's still stuck in reverse. The gear selector only seems to engage third and fourth. It won't move over to the left to engage first and second or over to the right to engage reverse, but the car itself is actually in reverse. There isn't much I can get to from the top end of the gearbox. Looks like I'm going to have to pull the gearbox and check it the hard way.
 
At least you'll have a chance to assess the clutch, release bearing, slave cylinder, etc - not expensive parts but hard to get to and you can do a bang-up job of cleaning the engine and tranny before re-installing - Everybody knows a clean engine adds 10 mph to your top end!

Good Luck

Bob M
 
Isn't the reverse "slider" tightened via the drain hole. I think I saw something in the Haynes manual about it.
 
Whe I first bought mine and went to back it out of the drive of the guys house, it stuck in reverse. The only way I found to get it out was to jack the car up and have someone fiddle with the shifter while I ran the jacked up rear wheel back and fouth by hand. It popped right out. The lay(cluster) gear was really chewed up when I tore the transmsission down and looked it over.
 
Back
Top