Hi all. I bought a Dobbin Cargo about two months back. Its a 52 plate and has 100k on the clock. It really is a super van that I love driving and I'm really happy but.... I am having trouble with the gears.

Reverse crunches almost all the time except 1st selection from cold start. The stick is very stiff when engine running and some gears especially 3rd are hard to get into to. Theres no crunching, it's like a "gate" sticks a bit. I have to give it just a second from say 2nd, then neutral then into 3rd otherwise there is a "resistance". Please please don't say major fault :-( I just havnt got the money to get a garage to carry out a major repair.

I didn't pick this up when I bought the van (private sale) as I thought it was just me not being used to the box.

Any help very much appreciated.

Kind regards
woody

Hi.
How is the selection of gears with the engine stopped? If OK you may have a little bit of clutch drag, that could be that you are not pushing the clutch pedal far enough down, it also could be the slave cylinder is needing bled or it could could be a fault in the clutch itself.
Another couples of things though, check the gearbox oil is up to level and it may be an idea to lubricate the gear selection ball joints and pivots on the top of the gearbox.
Good Luck

murphyv310 said:

Hi.
How is the selection of gears with the engine stopped? If OK you may have a little bit of clutch drag, that could be that you are not pushing the clutch pedal far enough down, it also could be the slave cylinder is needing bled or it could could be a fault in the clutch itself.
Another couples of things though, check the gearbox oil is up to level and it may be an idea to lubricate the gear selection ball joints and pivots on the top of the gearbox.
Good Luck

Click to expand...

When the engine is stopped it is fine. It does feel very similar to not pushing the pedal down enough when running. How do I lubricate the ball joints and pivots please?

many thanks for your help, very much appreciated.

woody

If the selection is OK when stopped it does sound like some clutch drag, I would bleed the clutch slave cylinder firstly, to lubricate the gearchange mechanism you could use some high melting point grease or lithium spray grease on the ball joints and pivots the spray grease usually is the easiest and will do a fine job.

If after bleeding the clutch slave cylinder there is no improvement, it sounds like a gearbox out job and possibly a clutch. I would get a second opinion though from a garage.
Good luck

Trevor thank you. To lubricate the ball joints and pivots, do I just remove the gaitor and housing inside the van or is it an under the van/bonnet job?

many thanks
woody

Hi.
The pivots and ball joints are the ones on the top of the gearbox, there are cables coming from the gearlever but they are well away from road dirt etc, the ones on the top of the gearbox tend to dry out.

Just wondering if my issue is related.
I have a 2004 1.9 JTD Family that feels like there is a physical block that won't allow me to select 4th.
All other gears are fine engine running or not.
It feels like the linkage is sloppy to me though. could a dodgy linkage be an issue for just one gear?