Club 80-90 Forums

The van's gearbox is silky smooth when cold. When things heat up a bit, I sometimes have to wrestle with the gear-stick a bit to get it out/in gear. Reverse can sometimes be particularly painful to find (when hot). It's not desperately bad, but it's noticeably different to when I first start it up and change through the gears.

Is this indicative of a need to replace the gearbox oil?

Thanks in advance folk.

Sounds familiar, and mine has new gearbox oil... so I guess it's something else? I know my linkage is pretty ropey, and the bits in the box at the bottom of the gearstick are very worn too. But I'd be interested in the diagnosis ...

4 speed or 5 speed ?
which gears are hard to select or get out of ?

change the oil if you don't know when it was done last and see what the drainplug magnet has to tell you, post a picture of it if you like, add a molyslip GM6RA if the plug is pretty clean, it won't fix anything but it will help reduce wear on the synchrorings going forward, and if the wrong oil is in there that can contribute to poor shift when hot and wearof the synchrorings, some old GL5s have a sulphur content that softens the brass rings' moly coating

On my 5sp it tends to be 2nd and 4th that are hard to get out of. And the drain plug was pretty clear really, just a bit of whiskering on it. And the oil change made the 1st to 2nd change was vastly better. The reluctance to come out of 2nd and 4th tends to be only occasional and when hot.

RogerT wrote:On my 5sp it tends to be 2nd and 4th that are hard to get out of. And the drain plug was pretty clear really, just a bit of whiskering on it. And the oil change made the 1st to 2nd change was vastly better. The reluctance to come out of 2nd and 4th tends to be only occasional and when hot.

that could be a linkage issue, drop the linkage check the cup and ball for wear, remove old dry lube and put some fresh lube in and make sure the boot 251 711 167 E is in good nick and correctly fitted

nsjtaylor wrote:The van's gearbox is silky smooth when cold. When things heat up a bit, I sometimes have to wrestle with the gear-stick a bit to get it out/in gear.

Mine used to have exactly the same symptoms - feels like a dragging clutch when the gearbox is hot. Renewing the gearbox oil didn't make any difference in my case. A couple of things improved it no end though:
1) I fitted a new clutch slave cylinder and renewed the hydraulic fluid.
2) I cleaned and regreased the gear selector box above the spare wheel.

These things have vastly improved the change, but I still get occasional baulky changes after a long hot run, or in particularly hot weather. After a few changes on slower roads it goes back to normal.

Another thing that was suggested was the spigot bearing - if that starts to bind up it can cause symptoms like a dragging clutch, and I could imagine how a dry or wearing bearing might snatch a bit when it gets hot.

I read a suggestion in another thread that it might be because the 'diff had been set up too tight' - I don't know what implications that has, or how you go about fixing it, but it makes sense that parts that have expanded due to heat will get even tighter, so the problem goes away when things cool down.

Thanks for all the suggestions and commentary, folk. Mine's a 5 speed box.

When hot, it can get a bit sticky in all gears. As mentioned, not tragically so, but I'd rather identify what the cause may be early on and sort it before I do end up stuck in gear somewhere (or stuck out of gear!), or wearing out a part prematurely that can be sorted with a bit of early TLC.

I suspect I'll end up refurbishing most of gear linkage (and new oil), as I've no idea the history of it and I've not touched or refurbished any part of the gear system since owning the van.

Thanks again!

Just out of interest, see if it happens when warm but raining outside. If its easier when the roads are wet, its far more likely to be a binding bush on the gearchange rods or simply lack of grease. I've had this with my 5 speed.