+2 Stuck in reverse gear

[Richard Howell]

Hello

I've had the clutch hose failure problem, so I've successfully replaced the hydraulic hose. Before I replaced it, the car was stuck in reverse, but I managed to free it by pumping the clutch, so when I put the new hose on the car was in neutral. With the new hose I was able to select the forward gears fine, but when I went to reverse it became stuck. It won't budge even with jiggling it about and pressing the clutch in and out. I've also tried rocking the car back and forth. The clutch is fine as I've been able to start the engine with the pedal depressed.
I've read about lining up the gear selectors with a screwdriver. I've removed the gear lever and cup etc and can see the gear selectors, there appear to be three of them including the reverse one. I can't get any of them to shift with a screwdriver and reasonable force. I'm trying to remove the cover plate to have a better look, but the bolts are pretty inaccessable as it appears to be mounted slightly off centre.
There is suppossed to be some kind of locking device that prevents more than one gear being engaged at the same time.
I can't seem to find a decent photograph or diagram of this part of the gearbox mechanism, yes I have the manual and two books on Elan restoration and I've looked on the web including looking for Ford Cortina gearbox info.

Any help/thoughts would be very much appreciated!

Regards Richard

[1964 S1]

When you say you can select the forward gears fine, is this while driving the car, or sitting still? Does your car start and move (in reverse, now?)

[Richard Howell]

Hello

That was 'could' select forward gears with engine not running.
But then I put it into reverse and can't get it out.
It's in a small garage, so there is only one direction to go.

Thanks

Richard

[Richard Howell]

Hello

The car will start and will drive in reverse, however, I can't go too far as there is a steep ramp out of the garage and I wouldn't be able to drive it up again if I went down it.

Thanks

Richard

[Rob_LaMoreaux]

The lockout mechanism used by the transmission consists of three short pins between the rails in the front of the transmission. These slide sideways when one of the rails is moved forward or aft, thereby preventing the other rails from moving. See the last picture at http://members.cox.net/elans4/Transmission.htm
You can see the hole in the middle rail (one dowel goes inside the hole) and the other two small dowels between the rails.

Since you can't get 1-4, the lockouts are probably working fine and the reverse rail is engaged.

I got a friend's seven stuck in reverse last year. I believe what happened was that the safety wire on the screw that locks the fork to the rail was missing and the screw backed out allowing the reverse fork to float. When I got the transmission into reverse (first time in ages for the car), the fork stuck. Fortunately this was on a seven where the top plate is accessible, so I removed the top plate, pushed the fork into place and everything was fine.

On a +2 it is difficult to get the top cover off since it would require a circus contortionist to get a wrench onto the bolts. With the wheels off the ground you might be able to get the fork to move now that the shift lever is off by wiggling the the reverse rail while hitting the starter with the coil disconnected. The reverse rail is the one on right side of the transmission (right side being the right hand side of the driver). If it is the set screw backed out the only real way to fix it is to pull the tranny to get to the top cover.

Hope this helps.

Rob

[Richard Howell]

Hi Rob

Thanks for your info, I liked the bit about the circus contortionist exactly right! The locking mechanism makes sense and feels to me likely to be the problem.
I'll let you know how I get on.

Regards

Richard