Difficult to engage 1st and/or Reverse???

Birchall

Dick Chown Award 2016
Before you spend hundreds to fix this or spend hours trying to adjust the gear change mechanism to cure this think of the following.

if you start the car with the clutch depressed or have had it depressed for a while (at traffic lights for example) the gears in the gearbox are not spinning and so this prevents them from meshing easily.

if you are having this issue, try the following.
Put the gearstick in neutral, lift your foot off the clutch and blip the throttle (to spin the gears) and then quite quickly dip the clutch and try again.
The reason that it only does this in 2st gear and reverse is because the car is stationary at the time. With other gear changes the car is rolling and so the gears in the gearbox are spinning.

try this before spending time and money.
The other thing to consider is stating the car in neutral without the clutch being depressed. Sounds scary but it is one way.
Steve B
 
Thanks for that, I will experiment! I have been annoyed that I couldn't understand why sometimes it's so easy to engage 1st and other times nearly impossible!
 
Same technique is used for driving without a clutch, if the gears select easy with engine off then for me thats a clutch a clearance issue.
 
Interesting, just recently I’ve found reverse gear harder to engage, often when I thought it was all set in reverse, I had a bit of a surprise when it started going forwards. It’s seemingly needing a more ‘positive’ manoeuvre to get it to select.
 
Interesting, just recently I’ve found reverse gear harder to engage, often when I thought it was all set in reverse, I had a bit of a surprise when it started going forwards. It’s seemingly needing a more ‘positive’ manoeuvre to get it to select.
If the gears aren’t spinning it can be difficult to engage the gear fully.
That often causes it to just crunch or grind when you release the clutch.
Try to ensure that the gears are spinning before you try to engage 1st or Reverse.
it shouldn’t need extra effort.
Steve B
 
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