Loss of first gear

[Brighty9311]

hi guys,
im new to this forum stuff so dont go crazy if i have got this post in the wrong place!!
im 18year old and very mechanicly minded, worked on historic rally cars, modern track cars and every day road cars, so am not affraid to get stuck in.

my mum and dad bought a morris minor traveler about 3 years ago, when they bought it they found that it was slipping out of first gear, now having done about 500 miles a year, first does no longer exist and pulling off in second seams to be the way forward .

MY BIG QUESTION IS, IS THERE A COMMON PROBLEM THAT CAN BE FIXED WITH THEM??

any help will be much appriciated

[les]

Sound mechanical, so your in the right place! 1st gear has no syncro and often noisy especially if teeth damaged/ missing. In your case It'll be a stripdown, if you're not up for that, there are often boxes for sale, although they can be a gamble, fortunately a gearbox swap whilst not a nice job is quite straight forward.

[Brighty9311]

thanks very much for that, full strip down sounds fun and a good bit of experiance, is there any partiqular parts supplyers that you would recomend? thanks

[bmcecosse]

Just swop in a replacement box. It may have stripped the teeth off the laygear, and could be beyond economical repair...... Does reverse still work? If so - there is some hope! But with another box in the car - you can then take the time to strip the old box and decide what's what.

[whyperion]

Where are you (everyone forgets to have the location box in ( approx ) and what is the year of travellor and engine size , there are some differences in the years of the gearboxes.

[Brighty9311]

hi whyperion,

im from sherwsbury shropshire, the morris is a 1961 1000cc hope this helps, thers no reall rush i have had my fair share of buying second hand gearboxes, told that they are in good working order, only to put it in and find it is a bad as the one i took out!

[les]

Yes, I'm afraid that seems to be a human trait, that not many have rebelled against. You can get overhaul kits with bearings etc but gears are not so easy and mixing individual gearwheels can cause whinning. They is a need to be careful with shims when assembling but again there are available. If you've got a manual the procedure is described.