Morris Minor Owners Club

Err help! Anyone have any hot tips as to what might be wrong with my Morris traveller 1000, and especially what I can fix without having to buy a new gearbox? Was popping out of reverse gear into false neutral and then sticking. A short jump backwards loosened it up but not anymore. Will be dismantling gearbox today and tinkering so any handy hints will be very much appreciated.
Lucyww

Maybe just worn selector forks - or even the reverse fork loose on the shaft. But it could also be a generally worn gearbox. Have to say (and it's no comfort to you) - I have never heard of this problem before - it's usually 1st and 2nd gear that give these problems. Do you do a lot of reversing ? I wouldn't buy a 'new' gearbox - usually some on ebay!! And you can always ask on here in the 'wanted' section. Is it 948 or 1098 ?

Probably a worn selector fork but may be dirt or debris in the gearbox oil.

You will need a manual to put it back together again.

If it jumped out of reverse because of a worn gear it should have also jumped out of first. I don't think that's the problem.

Soon after acquiring my minor it started becoming harder & harder to select any gear. The cause of the problem was a single missing locknut on the Selector Fork rod -without it vibration caused the screwnut to undo itself. Once I obtained the locknut from ESM it took two minutes to tighten and it's been fine now for 6 years. I hope this is the problem rather than wear to the selector fork itself.

Indeed - you can have a look at all that lot by taking the side plate off - beware of the oil !

There's a chap in 'For Sale' section wants rid of two gearboxes - grab at least one of them !

Did you ever manage to get this sorted out ?

Well it's taken a while but yes,... sort of. Having never even been under a car before we took the gearbox out and opened it up. The reverse shaft going through the reverse gear had snapped in two taking the top off the loop in the housing that holds the shaft in place. With a large lump of metal floating around in there it's no wonder that everything was jammed. We got hold of a new case with new reverse and first gears. The good thing about it getting jammed early on was that it didn't knacker too much else in there. We stripped everything down and put it all back together. Then we stripped it down again and realigned the second gear sychroniser bush in the right place (Thank God for workshop manuals!). Then we put it all back together and into the car again. That was yesterday. First gear works a treat, first to second ok, third, fourth and back again - lovely. Reverse works best of all but third down into second just doesn't want to go. We know it's not the synchromesh as we spent many happy hours pinging ballbearings around the living room and examining it in detail. The teeth are fine. Our last hope is that, as we are missing the plunger that goes in the underside of the gearbox holding a ballbearing in place, it will do the trick once we've got hold of it.
Whatever happens I know a damn sight more about my minor than before. I've spent more time under it than in it!!! Baptism of fire?
Any handy hints?
Lucy

Have you tried double de clutching between 3rd and 2nd?

Well done !! Does second to third work ok ? Is it just the down-change that is difficult - or does it refuse to go in at all ? The balls in the syncro hub are one thing - but if the syncro cone is worn then effectively you have no syncromessh - and second gear is the one that takes the hammering. As long as it drives and dosen't jump out then double-de-clutching should keep you on the road ok!

Yup. Only going down from third, although on another test run today, in the hope that it had fixed itself overnight, we discovered that first to second goes after a while. If you double declutch it works intermitantly but then it pops out of gear again as soon as you touch the clutch pedal. No cones as it's a 1098 gearbox and the baulk rings all looked ok. I know, I know..... strip it down again or get a new one. AAAAAHHHHHH!
Reverse gear is lovely though and that's the main...
Lucy

RIGHT! Fixed and lovely.Well, almost lovely. Not being able to go down from third to second was caused by a ballbearing jammed in the wrong place. Whilst putting in the gear fork selector rods you have to put the ballbearings in at the right time. In the book it tells you to ram one of them home. For future reference ram it REALLY hard. It's not good enough if it just meets resistance. It can go further!! So that was no problem. Of course we then lost the bush that goes at the end of the main shaft into the clutch, so we had to take the whole thing out again (Down to 55 mins with the two of us now.) but it all seems to work. Slight popping out of second gear now and then but I can live with that. Any of this sound familliar?
Thanks for all online help. Have done 'the gearbox' now.
Next job - complete respray.......!
Lucyww

Oh yes - all very familiar. Start a search on ebay for another spare box!. Well done with the perseverance.