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Transmission question

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nevets

nevets

Jedi Knight
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Something I've encountered since owning my BN6...The transmission is strong, quiet and smooth, but if I'm not careful when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd I will push the gearshift lever left, past 2nd and 'touch' reverse, causing a bit of a grind. I'm not a gorilla, I'm more of a finesse shifter, so when it happens, which is not often, it's with minimal force. Just wondering if this is normal and whether I should do anything about it other than exercise care when engaging 2nd? I was thinking there should be some kind of a lock-out gate to prevent this from happening?
 
Have you re-chromed the shifting lever? My Italian friend have same problem with re-chromed shifting lever that have be done also to the ball - incredible but this little thickness
gave a lot of problems in shifting operations
 
Hello nevets

There is a type of lock out in the reverse selector fork assembly.

It's really another spring that adds a bit of resistance to the gearlever just for those times when as you say "your not careful when downshifting from 3rd to 2nd" (no criticism here intended).

You may have a broken or weak spring, or the plunger that the spring is working against may be stuck in it's bore.

It can be looked at without removing the transmission.

Remove the drivers seat and transmission cover attached to the floor.

Drain the oil and remove the side plate that the gearlever is attached to but be careful of the 3 springs that are located in this plate. ( the manual will show you what I mean). Underneath each spring is a steel ball, make sure you get each one out at this point as otherwise they will roll out later when you don't expect them and get lost.

looking at the exploded view of the transmission you should be able to determine which is the reverse selector fork as it is different from the other 2 forks there.

There is a cotter pin and a washer that can be removed and also the safety wire and square head screw to allow the fork to rotate on it's shaft thus allowing the detent pieces to be removed.

Remove any sharp edges from the plunger (that the spring locates on) with either an emery stone or even some fine emery paper (sand paper).

I don't know what the free length of the spring is supposed to be.

I just looked at Moss Motors website and they show all the pieces (whether they have them or not I don't know), that is items # 85, 88, 89, 90. 91, 92.

Reinstalling the cotter pin and washer is tough on your fingers.

I'm not saying you should buy all these parts but if you've gone this far it would probably be a good idea.

I used to have the same thing with my BN7 and once it had happened a couple of times it stuck in my mind and the problem went away.

regards

bundyrum.
 
bundyrum
Thanks for the detailed and informative response. It's good to know that it's possible to address this issue without removal of the transmission.
 
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