Thread: I've lost 3rd gear.....????

Is the gear stick sloppier than before?

Hi Arthur.
Thanks for the reply. I have been driving it for a week or more now skipping from 2nd to 4th and low and behold 3rd came back tonight. I noticed since coming back changing down gears from 4th to 3rd doesn't work all the time but going back up seems ok. I was wondering about the gear lever tonight and I do think it is a little more sloppy than previously. What do you think? There wasn't any noise or crunch or anything when I first lost 3rd nor is there any noises in the actual gearbox. Thank you again for taking the time to respond. Kind regards, Ross.

Most likely you've broken the plastic anti-rattle socket off the end of the lever. The stick will be much sloppier than usual and will rattle loudly when driving. (I do seem to remember they stopped using that socket later on, but I'm not exactly sure when... or really if I'm remembering right at all!).

Second easiest thing to fix would be the clamping bolt on the selector rod coming loose. The gears would be really vague but the stick wouldn't rattle about much.

The worst case scenario is that the circlip holding 2nd and 3rd gears onto the mainshaft has dislodged. Unfortunately this usually shears off locating pegs on the shaft and can break the large bronze bush, too. I know this from bitter experience! For your sake I hope it's not this. If it is, though, buy a new circlip, don't try to reuse the old one or it will just happen again.

Dan.
69 2A 88" pet4 (still in disguise), 68 2B FC pet6 (still resting quietly), plus 14 other parts/project cars (1xS2, 6xS2As, 7xS3s).

I'm having a very similar problem with my 1975 109.
When going down hill in 3rd every now and then it jumps out of gear and won't go back in 3rd but if I put it in 4th then back to 3rd no problem.
I'm now thinking I should have a look and see what the problem might be.
Fingers crossed its simple and cheap.