Morris Minor Owners Club

A friend has just had a replacement gearbox fitted (very good second hand) at a garage and the gear lever is further to the left than before by about 3/4" so that when its in reverse it touches the hand brake and when its in 4th its slightly to the left of the handbrake, when I checked mine in 4th its in line with the handbrake.
Now the gear lever that was used came from the original box and the one that came with the box was not used, is it possible that the angles are different and if not can the lever be heated up and adjusted.

Possibly bent then. They can be easily bent back into shape. Heating it up will make it easier. I had to 'bend' mine after I welded the top half of the Moggy stick to the bottom bit of a Sierra one so that I could have a Sierra 'box and a fairly standard looking interior because I hate the look of the Sierra stick, knob and gaiter in a Moggy!

this is due to worn parts, selector shaft forks, thrust washers, inside the gearbox. these g/boxs dont jump out of gear because these parts have been replaced, but the mentioned parts have not so theres lots of free play, hence the extra travel on the gear stick, often in 2nd and reverse. also a bent stick as cam mentions

When the stick is returned to it's socket, it can be turned before it's replaced and therefore appears in a slightly differant angle.

maybe , that the problem.
cheers, sb.

it can be turned before it's replaced and therefore appears in a slightly differant angle.

If that's the case then there is a missing location pin in the 'recon' box.
Judging by the state of many new and recon parts it can't be ruled out!

If the lever came from the existing box I doubt it is bent, and I don't see any reason that that Morris would have used different gear levers to mount to the same gearbox.

One other possibility is that they messed up something on the gearbox rubbers so the box is slightly out of line.

could be ray but this sounds like the gearstick travels a long way to sit in position.
on acceleration and deceleration does the stick move back and forth a little?

tricky to test in reverse

How "smooth" are the gear changes? I mean, is locating the gears easy or difficult?

The gear change if fine and the gearstick does not appear to have much movement it just seems to be in slightly the wrong position, and does not have any extra movement.

KEVIN....WHAT IS THE POSITION LIKE IF YOU USE THE OTHER
LEVER?? That will soon tell you if one of them is bent. ( I must say
that I have never had a recon gearbox come complete with gear
lever and wouldn't expect one).

I did not say the replacement gearbox was a re-con just a good 2nd hand one that was comlete with the gear lever, and that the original lever was used giving the different position.
Well the lever that came with the box has been fitted and the position is now OK (when in 4th it lines up with the handbrake) so I can only assume the original one was bent a bit which is odd as the original box & gear lever position was OK. I wonder if as Ray says the original gearbox mounting rubbers were worn a bit or something and previously someone had adjusted the lever a bit, as the replacement gearbox came with a good pair of mountings.

Wasn't there some discussion a few weeks back about the 948 and 1098 'boxes having different gearlevers? Maybe the previous owner swapped or bent the lever to stop it catching on the seat - they can do on some cars with the seat right forward.

Maybe the previous owner swapped or bent the lever to stop it catching on the seat

oooh - that sounds like a good theory - I've had atleast one moggy where the gearlever hit the seat in reverse

My hand is a nice snug fit between the gear knob and seat in reverse!

PETEE....the item on different gear levers referred to the fact
that there is a small difference in the distance between the
pivot ball and the bottom ball between 948's and 1098's.