Help…gears messing up…100miles from home

What could this be? Had to make a delivery nr Salisbury and now aiming for home, London.

gear changes getting crunchy this morning when setting so stopped and adjusted shifter plate, seemed to work OK again. Bowden tube,mp cable ends etc all good. Newish cable so all good on surface.

now on return leg, gears getting stuck (have to turn off engine to shift)…l

Screeching from middle of gear box when in neutral, started in reverse..now it’s first,…not wanting to shift out of gear with clutch depressed.

Got into a super market car park. Going to tighten the clutch cable see if that helps…

any advice ..really don’t want yellow taxi time.?

 

Try slackening the clutch cable.

 

OK, tried tightening it two turns-ish and it got worser… on the brink of the beam me up scotty manoeuvre.… screaming and no ability to change anything…but enough about me..its dinner time

 

My guess is the newish cable was over tightened on adjustment, its probably knackered the release bearing or pressure plate.

 

Ouch, put it in on the other side of summer me self… seemed ok til now..lots of miles since then..off to loosen now…see if it comes good.

 

Loosed it off loads, but still difficult/impossible with selection ..and grinding noises.
When engine off it selects fine. Will try to loose it a bit more

na, still not right at all, tried adjusting plate but it all changes when engine on driving round a Tesco’s car park in 1st & 2nd..gets stuck in 2nd … this won’t end well heading x country.

 

What’s a thrust bearing?

 

The bearing that’s shoved forwards when you step on the clutch, to disengage the clutch springs.

 

Have a check on your coupling to gearbox is ok ..just to cross off list

 

I would definitely look at the shift coupler bolt at the front of the gearbox, check its tight and in properly. Check the collar with the bolt in it on the coupler (to left of picture) is still fixed to the cage (to the right) that is attached to the through bolt going through the end of the rod from the front.

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Check that the through bolt is in place and the cheeks on the shift coupler are both there.
(this is a Beetle picture its clearer, same part just the other way up. )














Check the other bolt in the shift rod just behind and above the handbrake adjuster bar at the front.


Clutch should release with pedal down about an inch from the top.


If its still dragging in gear you may have broken the guide bracket that holds the rod that guides the shift transfer lever in the front of the gearbox. Or the little donut ball at the end of the shift coupler lever inside the nosecone has vanished.

Stopping now, that may be all that needs replacing.

Carrying on with it crunching and you are just making it more expensive. Even a tow home without a recovery subscription will be cheaper than a £800 recon gearbox with a warranty. Although you may end up having to pay for both.

 

Waited 2.5 hrs for the RAC verdict, gear box internals he reckoned (old fellah, so might actually know ) after listening to the screeching in neutral…reckoned carrying on wouldnt have been at all wise with possible catastrophic failure somewhere nasty.

So now a wait for the orange taxi…maybe get home by midnight ya yah ya.

Mike, I’ll check the couplings on my next undergang mission - but sounds like it’s a gearbox job, whatever that entails..it’s been pretty rubbish for years tbh,
And yesterday I just established I dont have to pay ULEZ , and my full tanks of peccy and lpg are gonna last ages now , so glass is half full really,
Thanks for all the replies!

 

I feel your pain! Good luck with the diagnostics. Where will the yellow taxi take you? Home or straight to a trusty air cooled type place?

 

Bus still there, bringing it back today …they got me a taxi back (92 miles). Worth paying the onward travel part of the recovery service, Even if it took ages into the night. First call out this year , so the bus has given me a good summer of action. Too much traffic everywhere has probably added pressure to a failing gear box.

Bus coming back to me….now I need to figure out what to do. ⚽️ Balls ⚽️.. this is not a job for little old me…rebuild or recon? What’s involved?

 

Get the engine out, It might just be clutch related

 

Do you have a go to air cooled specialist you can tow/trailer it to who can diagnose extent of problem?

 

This year? Do you do this rather than maintain it?

 

It’s a never ending task. This year I’ve:
Changed oil about 3 times, plus filter
Changed gear oil
Changed clutch cab,e when it went - was OK til it wasn’t
Replaced accelerator cable
Had loads of welding done, plates welded onto cut out sections. Looks OK. Was cheap, mates rates, not done by me.
Renewed selector plate , my bodge one from 2015 had fallen apart.
Installed a sink unit
Installed a PV system.
Sorted new door handles from found bits
Fixed sticky, creaky sliding door…for now.
Changed battery for new proper size one,
Screwed things up when fallen off.
also put on Some new scrapers
Last I recall.. remounted Zed bed hinges so they don’t drop while asleep on the bloody thing
Cleaned it at least once. Half arsedly, life’s too short

god that’s loads, prob forgot quite a few things, like setting rocker gaps about 4/5 times.
Last years 2 call outs was a local tow…drive shaft hanging off, and a flat battery not starting me.

obvs..while holding down about 4 jobs. Fairly responsible ones. For me.
So it’s not exactly relying on breakdown cover. they did offer me a hotel for the night, if it was early enough I’d have accepted and gone straight the bar.

 

It came back after a week somewhere in between. Don’t think they can get the staff.
Checked the stuff in mikes picture and it all looks and feels in place. Not sure what to do now.
Can’t do any of this myself. Gear box is terra incognito. Wouldnt even take a sturmey archer apart , but this is orders of magnitude bigger than that.
Sounds like it might be … clutch spring related . Therefore not such a nightmare.
Or probably more like .. somethings eventually gone in the box, misaligned and it needs a new recon one

all of which needs engine out.. not possible for me to do in the street, and beyond me anyway. No half decent garages near here. Quinoa oat milk shakes on the other hand…


Any suggestions?

 

You are going to need a garage to take it to, then organise another low loader to that garage - a pity you didnt manage to get the recovery to go straight to somewhere suitable.

If you had confidence in a quieter bit of road, with no camber, you only need a few clear feet with a good jack behind the bus to drop the engine straight down onto wood blocks and then drop the gearbox out after lifting up one wheel at a time to disconnect the drive shafts, and disconnecting the clutch cable and gearchange linkage, earth strap and reversing light connector.

 

Thanks Mike, It wouldn’t work for me to do this at this point .. took me about month to redo a drive shaft..everything goes wrong. Would end up with a pile of useless stuff in the road and making things worser.

where’s a good recommendation for a recon gearbox, so I can get started making enquiries?