Thread: Manual gearbox gear selection issues

If one of the springs brake or drops off it does make the opposite selection awkward.

hows reverse and hows the clutch?

if its not the bias springs on the top or the plate I dont have any good news for you..

depending on the gearbox start saving pennies for as a minimum new bearings and syncros...

I'll leave that there for now untill you get that far, then we'll play 20 questions.

Originally Posted by ladas

If one of the springs brake or drops off it does make the opposite selection awkward.

Thanks.i will have a look tomorrow and report back. Matt

Originally Posted by Ace

Hi guys, went out for a run with the LROC club today near home and nearing the end of the trip i noticed that changing into first and out of second gear was harder than normal and it felt as though it was catching on something each time. Once in gear it drives fine. Then when i select 3 and 5th they dont feel quite right, nearly as if the slot isnt in the same spot or something.

I looked in the overhaul manual i have and the Four Wheel Drives Parts Catalogue and there are two springs which appear to be associated with 1st and 2nd gear could they have failed or something. It didnt give any warning, it just started. No dodgy changes all day or anything like that. I am going to pull the centre console out tomorrow and bugger around with it and see if there is a selector issue or something like that but i thought i would ask here to see if anyone has had a similar problem. Matt

G/day mate, It well could be a cracked selecter in side the box , my 96 130 failed there, had trouble getting reverse then couple days later couldnot get any gear at all!!. they had a alloy component in there and changed to steel as a modification. Just another thing to make life with a landy interesting.

Cheers Sumo.

If it is to do with the springs, the good thing is they are easy to get at. The centre console needs to come out, as does the big rubber membrane over the transmission. There are 4 large philips head screws covering the bias assembly and underneath is the bias plate and the springs.

I had the bias plate crack after doing a long trip around NSW and back, and the 3rd/4th gate was in the "wrong" place because the stops for the springs had moved. It was a very simple welding job to repair.

Worth investigating before you have kittens!

Originally Posted by MacMan

If it is to do with the springs, the good thing is they are easy to get at. The centre console needs to come out, as does the big rubber membrane over the transmission. There are 4 large philips head screws covering the bias assembly and underneath is the bias plate and the springs.

I had the bias plate crack after doing a long trip around NSW and back, and the 3rd/4th gate was in the "wrong" place because the stops for the springs had moved. It was a very simple welding job to repair.

Worth investigating before you have kittens!

When you say in the wrong position do you mean that when you went into those gears the stick didnt feel in the same spot as usual? Cause thats what mine feels like. Something is catching as you try and select 1st but the rest of the gears seem to change fine and the clutch feels normal, reverse is no different. Matt

I had the same problem 2 year ago.
It was the plate on top of the gear box, they are only a pressed right angle metal and they crack along the fold line.
It causes the the gear stick position springs to misalign causing difficult gear change. The lever tends to miss the 'gate'
A cheap part to buy, but can be rewelded and braced to increase strength.
Do require the consul to be removed, and the rivets drilled out off the tunnel cover.
You do need a 90deg drill to access the ones under the dash /centre consol junction as they are hard to drill out with a normal drill.

with reverse being ok and the clutch being happy then im going to put my weight behind either cracking or deformtion of the bias plate, altertatively the bias springs may have jumped out of position and when youve moved the gear lever back into position they havent engaged on the shifter as they should...

heres my fix for it..

disassemble the transmission tunnel as mentioned previously in here.

you'll see the 2 spring arms and a metal plate sticking up as best you can reposition that plate (it should be exactly 90degrees) and the 2 springs (its obvious where the go the collar on the shifter has a groove in it)

once youve got that happening, grab a texta marker and put 2 little dots on the back of the plate next to the 2 bias springs. Mark the bias springs left and right appropriatley before removal (they have different strengths)

pull it down and using a half moon or round file file a slight indentation (about 1mm is enough) on the plate where your texta markings are. give it a light sand to remove the rough edges.

weld a vertical brace onto the tab to re-inforce it (high temp solder will also be good enough for this if your a good solderer and the prep work is up to speed)

assembley is the reverse of dissasembly bolt tension right of the top of my head are about 20nm but RFTM to make sure. The theory is when you shift the lever left the right side bias spring now not in contact with the collar is held in place by the little groove.


Best of luck to ya



reassemble.... now when youve