General Punto MK1 Gearbox problem

[spizzle]

Hi

Hope someone can help. Just returned from a short drive giving up after the punto started jumping out of gear (seems to be any gear) accompanied by high pitched whirring sounds. Haven't noticed any problems with the clutch up to now (it was replaced 30K miles ago at 95K) and this has come absolutely out of the blue.

I've never experienced any of these symptoms in anything I've driven before and was just wondering what the likely cause is and whether I can fix or if not whether it's worth the price of repair. I've a horrible feeling this is the gearbox.

Cheers

 

[blu73]

i wouldn't worry that much.. Someone whos better at gearboxes will be along soon i'm sure. Worst case scenario though a gearbox can be got for £40-50 and an hour or 2 to drop the old one and fit another. Its not so bad even if you do need a whole box, which i doubt tbh.

 

[wilko1992]

New gear box well 2nd hand any way, when was the gear box oil last changed?

 

[spizzle]

Not sure really not in the 2 years I've owned it anyway. Had a look last night gear oil was up to the level.

I've looked at the guide for replacing a clutch involving taking off the transmission - don't think it's beyond my abilities, just a bit wary of the odd seized bolt and manhandling the new gearbox into place

 

[blu73]

a friend to help is advantageous when changing the box but not entirely necessary - depends how strong your feeling on the day lol. But the boxes on these are not too heavy, i tend to have the car on axle stands and then put the box on a trolley jack and use your hands to keep it steady as you slowly jack it up and into position, hold with one hand while you stick a few bolts in with the other and then it will stay there while you get the rest of the bolts in..

 

[spizzle]

Thanks for the advice Blu73, feeling a lot more confident about tackling this now. Just setting off to pick one up for £70 perhaps a bit expensive but local

 

[spizzle]

Spent the best part of this afternoon getting the old gearbox off. Slow progress as I had to keep checking the guide to make sure I was removing the right bits. Bit tight in places but going well so far.

 

[spizzle]

Well after 2 days working on my own, I'm knackered, bruised but I have a replacement gearbox fitted.

Not all went to plan, replacement I got from the scrappy were missing the driveshaft pockets....didn't realise I could simply swap them over, but after taking both gearboxes back to the scrapyard, they helped me out and fitted them to the new one for me.

I managed to snap the vertical bolt holding the rear transmission to chassis mounting, so that'll be a visit to kwikfit on the weekend for them to drill it out and replace.

Now I had a problem with the gear selector rod I won't go into here, but I had to take it off the replacement gearbox and use the original. I may have buggered things up because I removed the lever from the gearbox as the linkage bolt was seized. Thing is now the gearstick, gear selection seems very loose....not sure if there's a correct way of recalibrating the lever so there's less free play, or if it's simply because of the new gearbox being different. Any help or advice will be most welcome.

The guide in the forums for removing the transmission was excellent, and served me well. I'd like to add the job can be done on your own, but through both days of fitting, I felt myself flagging and would have welcomed someone to give me a hand.

Thanks to the forums I've completed a job, I would never have thought I could have achieved.