4Spd Shift Selector Problem

[Bud English]

The shop manual wasn't much help and after an hour long stroll through the archives I have to give in and ask for help.

I've never had any problems with the gearbox and it worked just fine when parked thirty three years ago. While the car was apart I wanted to refresh the gaskets in the transmission. I did not split the tail housing from the box as that gasket still had the paint on the edges and showed no signs of seeping like the others. I also didn't really want to disassemble any further than I had to. So all I changed was the front (bell housing), top cover, and shift selector gaskets and the input and tail housing seals. I even checked the height of the detent ball springs as suggested in an earlier post. I didn't touch the safety wired bolts on the shift select levers even though it is a horrible safety wiring job and I was tempted. I put it all back together and set it aside.

Today I was going to mate it to the engine, hopefully for the last time. I knew I'd probably have to turn the output shaft a little when engaging the input splines with the clutch plate. While it was still on the bench I put it gear and tried to turn the out put shaft. All I got was a clunk. In neutral the output shaft turns freely as you'd expect but the input shaft only turns a degree or less and there's the clunk. It's like it's in two gears at once and not in neutral. Can the shift lockout pins come out by rolling the transmission over when cleaning the outside if the shafts haven't been removed or the covers even been taken off?

With the covers back off, I checked that the detent balls drop into the neutral notches and the gates appear aligned when looking down into the shift selector. The input shaft remains locked up.

How did I screw it up??

[AHM]

If you have allowed the input shaft to come forward when changing the seal it is possible for the blocker bars to become missaligned. When you put the cover back on an tighten-up the input shaft jams against the baulk ring.

In neutral does the input shaft turn when you turn the output shaft?

Check that the baulk ring is free to move.

Can you put it in 4th gear? - If you can does it rotate freely? - Could just be that the 4th gear baulk ring is stuck to the cone.

[Bud English]

Sounds like the shaft may have come forward. The input shaft won't turn in any gear selector position including neutral, when the tail shaft will turn.

[Bud English]

....or, even after reading the warnings here on the forum and visually matching the new to old, I used bolts that were just a tad too long to attach the seal retainer.

The bolt at the seven o-clock position was literally a fraction of a thread too long. Hand tight, it was okay, but torqued to spec it fouled something inside the transmission.

AHM- Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. It was when checking that the baulk ring moved free that I started questioning what else was up front there that could be binding.

I've added a note to my shop manual. Now all I need is some new gaskets...

[marode]

Sounds like the same story, that happened to me last week. I would also suppose a problem at the synchro ring. I had moved the main shaft a bit forward to fit a new gasket at the extension housing. One of the synchro rings has then moved from the hub, must have been rotated an bit while the procedure and then was apparently not being pushed in the right position when I screwed down the extention housing again. This leeds to the front end of the main shaft being blocked. Could also be a dislocated synchro insert for the same reason. Try and check, if the synchro rings are all in place with its gaps in the right position. I?m afraid to tell, that you probably will have to take out the main shaft to fix this. Therefore you have to take out the layshaft first (use a dummy shaft!). No worry, I had to open my gearbox three times because of such mistakes, you will get faster everytime you do it...