Morris Minor Owners Club

Driving me crazy is this, especially at 60-70mph!

Any ideas on how to stop my gearstick from rattling when my moggy's pulling?

Cheers,
Chris

hi chris,
maurice has vibration issues too! currently i find holding it still works!! so i will follow this with interest.
good luck

do you wanna know what I do? I drive with my knee against the gearstick... that stops it rattling!! When you look at the gearbox there are the 3 bolts that hold the stick in, and somewhere in there theres meant to be a spring to stop the rattling - mine doesn't have it at all - but you should be able to get one from one of the many minor shops......

I had this problem just a few weeks ago, turned out the three bolts that hold the the round slotted cover (that the gearstick moves in) had come loose. I used new spring washers then tightened them back up and so far nothing but peace and quiet.
...well, you know, except for the usual moggie din.
ROB.

Ooh, that sounds easy enough for even me to try out, will give that a go when Maurice returns from the Health Farm and maybe even find something I can do myself! May even save a bit of money off his bill
will let you know how I get on

The rattle is normal on Minors, and is easy to fix.
When you remove the round holding plate (the one with 3 bolts) you can lift the gearsick out.
There is a spring loaded plunger in the gearbox at the side of the big spherical part of the gearstick and another under the small spherical part at the end of the gearstick. If these spring loaded plugers are missing then they need to be replaced, but that is rare.
Take care not to let the plungers fall into the hole!!!

There should be an o-ring around the small spherical part of the gearstick - commonly reffered to as the antirattle o-ring. This o-ring shrinks and gets worn over time so that it hardly sticks out and then doesn't do anything. If it's worn, replacing the o-ring will make a huge improvement.

Ray.

mine has no o ring (i think) and it definately has no springs.......

Matt,
you would see a hole if the punger/s are missing.
However they are not obviuos if you don't know that they are.
The o-ring is worth doing but will not fix all the noise if your plungers are missing.

i'm quite happy to drive with my knee against the gearstick, at the moment it would be a real pain to do anything about!

Matt, If you need the plungers, please let me know - I have a gearbox that I'm planning to throw away.

it would be kinda awkward to do it ray.... the cars in southampton i'm in london..... however if no - one else here wants them i would like the plungers........ thanks

Had a look at it today, all three bolts on the holding plate are completely different, and won't screw in completely (they just spin without tightening at a certain point). The o-ring is naffed and very worn, and I couldn't find any plungers. I found a hole in the bottom of the small sphere packed with grease, and the groove in the side of the large one was also packed with grease. Also after looking at the diagram should there be a 4th small bolt/pin in the top? (speed pin or something) as this is also missing.

And this is supposed to be a recon box, only 5 months old!

Cheers,
Chris

Mine is a recon job too........ as of 18 months ago, one of the threads for the steady cable was stripped when we got it..........

If the 3 bolts won't tighten then you'll need helicoils or you can swap the gearbox seletor extension housing from a scrap box (easy to swap but you'll need a new gasket or gasket paper)

not sure about the 4th mount/pin - maybe it has a short dowel/location pin. Can't remember offhand but the plate only fits in one way.

The groove in the side of the large sphere is normally clogged with grease (or clogged with dirt on an old box).
In the gearbox housing there is a pin which fits in the groove. About 30° round from the pin is the plunger which looks similar but is brass and is wider.
The other plunger fits in the selection linakage underneath where the small sphere fits. - It doesn't look like a plunger until you press it down and it moves.

No, there were no plungers (unless I unwittingly dropped them both)

Will upload the diagram with the 4th pin in a mo

Chris

I have uploaded the diagram to http://www.diveconnections.com/~chris/gearstick.jpg be warned this is about 250kb, so may take a while to download.

The pin that I'm looking at is no.1 "Change Speed lever cover set-pin"

Chris

change speed lever cover set pin... Funny how things don't change even when dealing with new gearbox parts.
Mix up a few different words and reverse the order!
hex head screw for Gear change lever coverplate = something completely different (change speed lever cover set pin)

The plunger assy is shown (item #7, the upper one) the spring and plunger can fall through when the lever is removed, but on an old gearbox they are often bunged up and stuck in place.
Also item #8 / #9 are the other plunger.

Cheers for that, I didn't realise 8 and 9 was the bottom plunger, and it definately wasn't there. If the spring and plunger at 7 did fall through, could it damage the box? I havn't moved it yet. The box is only 5 months old, but it was still pretty gunky.

Do you reckon I should bother about looking for a new "change speed lever cover set pin", or will it be alright without?

Cheers,
Chris

looking for a new "change speed lever cover set pin",

Those are just the screws that hold the cover on. Chances are that the threads in the Aluminium are stripped, which needs to be fixed or replaced. If it's the screws that are stripped they can be replaced.
Otherwise, one day the gear lever may come out of its socket during driving.
The plungers push the gearlever out of it's position and the cover plate resists that, but the main force pushing the lever out will be the force reaction during a gearshift.

who wants springs and plungers?