Marcos Maniacs

I was driving my mini marcos to the vintage races, pulled up to a stop 
and presto, no third or fourth gear, just missing, no grinding first 
second and reverse work fine.  Must be linkage -- any clues

Pete

On 7 Jul 2008 pinsx3 wrote:

> I was driving my mini marcos to the vintage races, pulled up to a stop
> and presto, no third or fourth gear, just missing, no grinding first
> second and reverse work fine.  Must be linkage -- any clues

What box is it (rod change, solid remote, magic wand/SPQR, 3-synchro)? 
Can you get the gear lever into the normal place for third and fourth? 
Has the first and second position changed?

If the external linkage was loose you'd have difficulty selecting any 
gear, though it would oviously be the first thing to check, 
particularly if you have a solid remote. Check the ball and socket 
linkage on top of the final drive housing (pre-rod change boxes). You 
might need to take the carbs and manifold off to get to it.

If you have a rod change box it is unlikely that the remote bit would 
fail partially in the way that you describe. If a pin came out you 
would lose the gear shift altogether.

The other possibility is a broken selector. The gearbox has two 
selectors which slide collars (synchronizers) along the third motion 
shaft. One is for first and second: the other is for third and fourth 
(and there's a small gear underneath for reverse). The gears, apart 
from reverse, are permanently meshed - the synchronizers engage dogs 
which lock the appropriate gear to the shaft, or the first and third 
motion shafts together for fourth.

Moving the gear lever from side to side chooses which selector to 
operate and moving it backwards or forwards then moves the collar left 
or right to engage the gear. I think if it was anything more serious 
than a broken or bent selector you'd be getting some nasty noises and 
bits of metal in the oil :(

-- 
Richard Porter           M I N I   M A R C O S   O W N E R S   C L U B
Webmaster/Archivist      MINI JEM * KINGFISHER  SPRINT * MINI SPECIALS
ricp@...           http://www.minimarcos.org.uk/