Morris Minor Owners Club

Drove another boggie (1098 ribbed box) and the gear leaver travel is about 1/2 of mine

any idea of how to sharpen up my gear change ( 3-4th are has much less travel

Not come across that before Ian all the 1098`s I have had have been similar.

very stange, second gear is nearly in the passenger seat but all the other gears are fine?

second gear is nearly in the passenger seat

You must have put the seat in wrong

Hi

The 948 and 1098 gear levers are different. If you use the 1098 box with the 948 lever, it's a long reach between 1st and 2nd. Get a 1098 lever and the problem will dissapear.

Cheers

strange that you say that, as i have tried the leaver from the spare box and it is better but very very tight to move?

Put some oil at the top of it? One the ball jointy bit?

Mine, after a particularly hard (theoretically) 80+ motorway journey 4 up suddenly became almost impossible to get from first to second. Having become utterly paranoid about the gearbox, I suddenly thought "hey, maybe this bit needs a dab of oil...." and lo, 'twas fixed.

hey, maybe this bit needs a dab of oil...."

How often do you check the gearbox oil level? Normally there should be some passive lubrication of these parts internally if there is enough oil in the box to splash around.

has been stood dry for 2 years, i filled to the bottom of the screw thread...


hum good point will poor a bit in the top of the box with and retry with the stiff
leaver ( was all very clean when fitted!)

good post pyoorkate
sometimes i fill my gear box up from there

turbo i get the feeling that your gearbox is getting on.
but syncro ok. could the long travel on the stick be compensating for worn thrust washers in gbox or my be the selector fork for 1/2nd gear. you can try and remove the side cover, have a look inside.
1st pulls slector shaft against casing stop, but 2 pushes shaft forward
is there any backlash when you decelerate noticable by the stick moving back and forth ive seen this 2 gear in the seat on other minors so you not alone

How often do you check the gearbox oil level?

Every 3,000 miles. I change it marginally more than every 12,000. And it's been changed twice in the last 3k... because I thought I'd cooked the SAE30 Classic motor oil* I put in - after this (theoretical) 80+ mph / 4 up trip, however it turned out to not be that. There was still a full and the oil seemed oily.

But hey, I stuck a new load of Multigrade in, and that didn't cure it, so I dribbled some in at the base of the gearlever and lo, it's been fine since

* A common problem on my MZ in the summer is turning the nice EP90 into something with the consistancy of penetrating oil.

There was still a full and the oil seemed oily

hmm.. I'll shut up then. I'm surprised the lever got so dry if the box was full but it must be possible.

I drained the oil from my gearbox today and it was thick like sirrup, also very light in colour but very opaque.

Comments?

Is it refilled with same oil as engine - Not gearbox oil?

fweddy,
Sounds like someone has used gearbox oil (EP80 or EP90). This stuff does not do it any good.
It might be worth to run it with engine oil for a few hundred miles to flush out the old stuff then change again to a good engine oil.

Is it refilled with same oil as engine -

Yes it is
Woops beaten to it by Ray

Fweddy,

Yes, bog standard 20W/50 oil does fine. Gearbox oil comes out looking like it's new because there's no by-products from any combustion process to discolour it. However it shouldn't be syrupy so Ray's guess may be right.

I was thinking that it might be gearbox oil as you say Ray. Also before draining I looked down the filler hole and with the light and my eye in as close to the same location as possible I noticed that the oil was only just visible down the hole and not filled to the bottom of the thread. I've left it draining and will fill tomorrow and can flush after some running. (Don't worry I'm not about to drive away without filling it and putting the bung back in - there are no wheels on the ute either.)