Lost Neutral ? (948cc Gold Seal Gearbox)

[whyperion]

Having removed engine and gearbox as one unit complete while engine bay area painted, rewired, suspension done and the clutch pedal shaft renewed and remote relay assembly renewed, the only work done on the gearbox was a little bit of external cleaning, (lost some of the gold paint, not the BMC sticker though), and the need to remove gearstick and retaining plate from the remote control assembly-renewed the collapsed O ring on the gearstick. To my knowledge no little springs etc came out from the base of gearstick (maybe they were lost years ago the last time I took the box apart to change a noisy reverse gear).

With box and engine back in car (propshaft not connected in) in attempting to start the engine(another story), with gearstick bolted in , the rear final drive is rotating (slowly) with gearstick in any position, . It has also been difficult to select third with engine not being turned.

[bmcecosse]

The syncro rings may have become 'stuck' and are dragging the output shaft round. But I suspect there is no real drive there. Is the box dry - or filled with oil? Slightly daft question of course - since oil would run out the tailshaft if it was filled.... I suggest fitting the propshaft and filling the box.

[chesney]

My '58 used to do this, would stop with normal hand pressure applied but without, on tickover, a wheel revolution per side of maybe 5 seconds-ish? The '68 doesn't, but I've put that down to both heavier wheels/tyres and a 1098 box. I just it it down to drag in the gearbox.

[tim_jnv]

In additon the engine apears to stall when it does eventually fire, its roating at starter motor/engine speed.

[whyperion]

Indeed it is stalling, but given we have just re-sussed the firing order, gained a mysterious fuel leak around the carb- I'll pop another float chamber cover gasket on and check the new rubber fuel pipe for fit , and the battery (which fires up the 1098cc one fine has always struggled with the 948, (decent condenser might help??- we have swapped plug leads and distrbutr cap, not main body yet) plus more easy start- forgot which shelf we put the last stuff on ). Question was is a dragging box causing the stalling (depressing clutch pedal is slowing the rear end rotation, but not eliminating it.
We have swapped starter motors too as they tend to eat electricity and unless pinions and flywheel gears are perfect their meshing can be inefficient. I am avoiding starting handles (bashed legs/hands/broken handle pins, damage to front panel and no front bumper to pivot on are making that a no-go for now.

We got dribbles of oil out of the gearbox end on removing and refitting it. [ since oil would run out the tailshaft if it was filled -isn't there supposed to be an oil seal at the tailshaft housing far end - maybe its ineffective unless levelish ]. I need to get the car back out of the garage to open the door to check the gearbox oil level- probably best to use my mini-pumping oil can than risk pouring oil on the concrete apron. I recall oil level (SAE20 or multi-grade) should be just below the neck of the filler plug hole bottom.

[bmcecosse]

Should be SAE 30 oil - but 20W50 will do. The oil seal is in-effective unless the prop shaft is in place !