Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi, I have finaly paid up my membership fee and awaiting full membership status.

My 1961 4 door saloon was first registered in new zealand. It was imported back to the uk in 1990 and was used up until december 1991, where it was an abandoned restoration project until 2009 where the previous owner had started restoration. I am now completing this restoration and have managed (with help from my uncle) to get the engine running and move forward. However, we cannot engage reverse gear as the stick will not shift over to the right, almost as if it was never built with reverse gear! but surely it must have been built with one, so the only conclusion we can come to is that it has been blanked off due to a strage law in new zealand (much like the old law for bubble cars alowed four gears but not reverse?) although this still seems unlikely. Can any shed some light on this?

cheers

Henry

Hahahahathe NZ rules idea is highly unlikely.......you do have to slightly bump the lever over (to the right and then back) - maybe it's just sticky. I would take the lever out of the remote control and pour in some thin oil as a first move. Does the car drive ok in the other gears ?

had the same happen to myself when i rebuilt one of my gearboxes years ago.
i had used the bits out of two gearboxes, and used the wrong reverse fork.

I found out when i was waiting at traffic lights and had slighty blocked the tram tracks, a tram came around the corner and I couldn't reverse out of the way. I had to get out and push the car backwards, up hill to let the tram clear the intersection.

my bet is the box has been rebuilt and the wrong reverse selector fork has been fitted.

It's a long shot, but if the 'box was rebuilt using a Series II selector fork, you could find that, as on the Series II cars, you need to lift the lever before it will allow you to shift it over to the right to get into the reverse gate. If the gearbox is done-for, just get a second-hand one to replace it with (I've bought a couple, and paid £35 each for them). Good luck.

Before doing anything drastic, try (if you haven't done already) giving it a rather sharp blow to the right with the palm of your hand. I had this trouble with a rebuilt box and found I was being too gentle with it. Don't get too brutal though!

Release the three bolts holding the gear lever cover plate and check that the lever selector ball is correctly positioned in the cup.

to be honnest, i had tried with a bit of a shove from the passengers side to get more force behind it but it is litteraly like the diagram . it wont even shift slightly right handside where reverse should go, yet all other gears select with relative ease. I will un screw the three bolts and see if i can see anything obstructing it and dry some thin oil (wd40 ? or thin engine oil?). If i still cant get it to shift after that, i will take the box apart when it comes out for the welding and respray.

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