General Difficulty shifting from 1st to 2nd: Car is fine. It's us. Inexperienced!

[Rosy]

Hi. New owner of '72 Fiat 500 L. Has a clean bill of health from the mechanic and runs great! Our problem is our lack of experience driving it. Having issues shifting from 1st to second. Advertised as having synchros in upper gears (Can't find exact wording. Pretty sure of this which would explain no problems from 2nd to 3rd to 4th). We have been told to "shift slowly" and/or double-clutch. We have tried everything. Having the most luck lagging a second (upshifting from 1st to 2nd) between neutral to 2nd. Little luck double-clutching! Makes a "thunk" more often than not. Any suggestions? (Explain it like I'm a first grader please )

 

[Rosy]

Hi. New owner of '72 Fiat 500 L. Has a clean bill of health from the mechanic and runs great! Our problem is our lack of experience driving it. Having issues shifting from 1st to second. Advertised as having synchros in upper gears (Can't find exact wording. Pretty sure of this which would explain no problems from 2nd to 3rd to 4th). We have been told to "shift slowly" and/or double-clutch. We have tried everything. Having the most luck lagging a second (upshifting from 1st to 2nd) between neutral to 2nd. Little luck double-clutching! Makes a "thunk" more often than not. Any suggestions? (Explain it like I'm a first grader please )

I did just find a few threads about this. Most solutions are as mentioned above, and especially more practice!

 

[Goldnrust]

If you have the synchro gearbox, then it should be like driving any ‘normal’ modern manual gearbox for the 1-2 up shift. All shifts, up and down, except for the 2-1 downshift should be no problem.

So it’s possible that you have a worn 2nd gear synchro. How is the 3-2 downshift? You’d expect that to be bad also if the 2nd gear synchro is worn.

Another option could be the gear lever adjustment, there’s a few threads covering issues selecting gears which turned out to be this adjustment which is fairly easily made from inside the car.

 

[fiat500]

It will be, as @Goldnrust says, worn synchro. When you're doing a gearbox rebuild it's not as mysterious and expensive as it sounds. My current box is sometimes like that when just sitting off from cold, and I think that the viscosity of the oil has something to do with it. I let the engine revs go down really low, almost stopping, and then change into second. Or more often, I select third and then quickly back down to second.

 

[the hobbler]

It will be, as @Goldnrust says, worn synchro. When you're doing a gearbox rebuild it's not as mysterious and expensive as it sounds. My current box is sometimes like that when just sitting off from cold, and I think that the viscosity of the oil has something to do with it. I let the engine revs go down really low, almost stopping, and then change into second. Or more often, I select third and then quickly back down to second.

Do you know what oil is in your gearbox (or even the amount in it?) The correct oil for the 126 'synchro' box is a good quality 20/50 engine oil. That information came from "Castrol Classic Oils". I have that oil in my gearbox, and have no shifting problems at all. You might need to put a 'specialist' oi; in gearbox to help extend the life of, and the performance of your synchromesh. "Red-Line MTL 75W80" would be suitable for that purpose. Filling the gearbox can be a 'pain in the bum'--it is awkward to put it mildly. Put the car on stands, drain the oil and remove the filler plug> This plug is often VERY tight, so the best method is to use a 1/2in drive 'backwards' and then the appropriate socket/spanner on the 'square'. For filling the gearbox, if you haven't got a big hyperdermic, the easiest way is to get a long length of tubing and a funnel. Put the tubing into the filler hole, leading it through to the back of the engine bay; put the funnel in the tubing and fill the gearbox until the oil comes out---that is then the correct leve;. Refit and tighten the filler plug

 

[TeleSpeed]

 

[Rosy]

Thanks all above! I appreciate all the info. We will work our way through each response. We did a lot of web research prior and had even seen the youtube clip before now. My husband seems to have mastered 1st to 2nd (the upper gears seem fine) but we're hesitant to do 3rd to 2nd "at speed" for fear of damaging it. So for now, we're just continuing to adjust to the car. And we're looking for someone locally who is used to classic Fiats to test drive to see if it's just our inexperience... or the oil/gearbox/synchros. I thank you very much!