Club 80-90 Forums

Hi All,

I'm not convinced I have set my gear linkage up quite correctly after a gearbox rebuild.

All gears select fine (including the detent spring for 1st/reverse) but the natural position the gearstick sits in appears to be 4th/5th gate, this is due to the spring pressure on the selector shaft within the gearbox. 
Bentley Manual seems to suggest the later selector shaft (which i have) should push it via spring pressure into 2nd/3rd not 4th/5th
I am confident the spring inside the gearbox is seated correctly as it could only be positioned in 1 location.
Is this normal?

The fact gears select ok means I wont loose much sleep over this but just seems odd to not be sat in 2nd/3rd gate?
cheers all.

I think the wiki is your friend here. Never done it myself though.

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Main_Page#M ... x_specific

If the gearbox selector ball is being pushed all the way out by the spring inside then likely the box has the top hat fitted, which it shouldn't have on a 5 speed box, it should only be pushed out to 2nd 3rd plane by the spring and you move it to 4th 5th plane using the stick which should be loose feeling between the planes.
If there is a top hat fitted then you can remove the reverse switch housing and under the spring you will see the top hat which can easily be removed.
Top hat (4 speed and Syncro box only)


The other possibility is that the selector shaft arrangement of circlips and the sliding cup that the spring pushes against has been messed with as happens sometimes when peeps try to dismantle the selector shaft when it doesn't readily come out and they don't know how it is assembled and later try to put back on the circlip that they removed eroneously.