Hi;
I've been having difficulty engaging Reverse and 5th (opposite sides of the gate, both on "doglegs" out to each side. It started last July just with 5th, couple of weeks after I'd had the van waxoyled by RustBusters (great job). Note, no grinding or graunching -- just that the lever simply wouldn't move over far enough to find the "slot" for the gear. It got gradually worse, to the point where if I'd used 5th, Reverse would be very hard to engage (could take a couple of minutes to get it in, and the stick needed locating manually for 1st/2nd (and 3rd/4th), rather than just letting it spring to its natural position). As you'd expect, if I successfully engaged Reverse, 5th became much more difficult to engage the next time I needed it. Almost a two-handed operation with either gear -- obviously not great.
I took it to a main dealer (Simonstone Bristol) and a technician put it on the ramp and had a look. He reckoned the gearbox end of the lateral linkage cable was gunged up -- possibly a combination of mud, Waxoyl, general gunk, etc., and sprayed it with a load of penetrating oil. This made a big difference -- problem almost gone away completely.
Then the vehicle sat for three weeks in Nov/Dec without being driven. On next outing, the problem was back with a vengeance, but improved slightly with use, although leaving it undriven for a day would set it back to "dreadful". Gear engagement of 1/2/3/4 has been pretty good -- no adverse symptoms there apart from the lack of "return to centre" in the lever, which to me tends to indicate that the "left/right" gearshift cable isn't doing its thing, possibly because the cable sheathing was not properly anchored at the lower end.
I took it back to Simonstone, and they've said that near- (passenger) side drive shaft had popped out slightly, enough to cause loss of gearbox oil but not enough (clearly) for me to notice any other problem (than above) while driving. Apparently the shaft is held into the gearbox with a seal and snap ring, and the snap ring "appears to have been lost".
My question (at last) is: Does this sound reasonable? I'm not sufficiently familiar with the layout of the various bits down there "in the zone of invisibility (without a ramp)" to judge whether a slightly withdrawn drive shaft could prevent easy gear engagement, or if in fact this is a separate problem which they happened to discover while in the area.
The van's in the shop till Tuesday, as they didn't have a new snap ring/seal in stock.
All insights much appreciated!
I've been having difficulty engaging Reverse and 5th (opposite sides of the gate, both on "doglegs" out to each side. It started last July just with 5th, couple of weeks after I'd had the van waxoyled by RustBusters (great job). Note, no grinding or graunching -- just that the lever simply wouldn't move over far enough to find the "slot" for the gear. It got gradually worse, to the point where if I'd used 5th, Reverse would be very hard to engage (could take a couple of minutes to get it in, and the stick needed locating manually for 1st/2nd (and 3rd/4th), rather than just letting it spring to its natural position). As you'd expect, if I successfully engaged Reverse, 5th became much more difficult to engage the next time I needed it. Almost a two-handed operation with either gear -- obviously not great.
I took it to a main dealer (Simonstone Bristol) and a technician put it on the ramp and had a look. He reckoned the gearbox end of the lateral linkage cable was gunged up -- possibly a combination of mud, Waxoyl, general gunk, etc., and sprayed it with a load of penetrating oil. This made a big difference -- problem almost gone away completely.
Then the vehicle sat for three weeks in Nov/Dec without being driven. On next outing, the problem was back with a vengeance, but improved slightly with use, although leaving it undriven for a day would set it back to "dreadful". Gear engagement of 1/2/3/4 has been pretty good -- no adverse symptoms there apart from the lack of "return to centre" in the lever, which to me tends to indicate that the "left/right" gearshift cable isn't doing its thing, possibly because the cable sheathing was not properly anchored at the lower end.
I took it back to Simonstone, and they've said that near- (passenger) side drive shaft had popped out slightly, enough to cause loss of gearbox oil but not enough (clearly) for me to notice any other problem (than above) while driving. Apparently the shaft is held into the gearbox with a seal and snap ring, and the snap ring "appears to have been lost".
My question (at last) is: Does this sound reasonable? I'm not sufficiently familiar with the layout of the various bits down there "in the zone of invisibility (without a ramp)" to judge whether a slightly withdrawn drive shaft could prevent easy gear engagement, or if in fact this is a separate problem which they happened to discover while in the area.
The van's in the shop till Tuesday, as they didn't have a new snap ring/seal in stock.
All insights much appreciated!