Help! Can't Change Gear!

[1905 adam 0]

Hi all,

 

Wonder if you can give me some pointers as to what the problem might be with the clutch mechanism on my BE1 gearbox....

 

Was driving along and suddenly found I couldn't change gear. Couldn't get out of the gear I was in without stopping and turning the engine off. Here's a summary of the symptoms:

 

At stand still I can't change gear if the engine is running.

And i can't change gear if the wheels are turning.

I can, though, select a gear, then start the engine and then drive off.

The clutch is not slipping. I have full, normal acceleration, once I'm in a gear.

The clutch pedal height has dropped about an inch, but the cable and all its mountings / guides in the engine bay look perfectly fine.

If I take out the little metal pin that, under pressure between the two, connects the "cable end arm" to the arm protruding from the clutch housing, I find that the latter arm is a bit floppy.... It moves back and forth in its normal direction of travel by about 1 or 2 centimetres.

 

So at the moment I am assuming that something has broken inside the clutch housing such that there is play in that arm, when there shouldn't be.... hence the clutch not fully disengaging, hence my not being able to change gear!

 

Does this sound likely and any thoughts as to what may have broken?

 

Many thanks!

[jackherer 543]

There are a few things that specifically fail on BE1 boxes, the arm that the cable connects to can fatigue and bend and the arm that sticks out of the box is mounted on a ball joint that is riveted to the casing and can come loose. If it's neither of those it'll be the release bearing probably.

 

Check the arm the cable goes onto for bending/cracking and if it isn't that you'll need to take the gearbox off to figure it out.