hard to get into gear

Hi,

There are many people in this newsgroup much more knowledgable than me, and I'm sure they will have much to say. But for my part, I can tell you about getting it into reverse-- if it doesn't go in at first, try putting it in neutral, letting out the clutch for a moment, then putting clutch in, put it in first, and then reverse. My understanding is that letting out the clutch in neutral will spin the transmission, and taking it to reverse via first will ensure that the transmission is stopped (reverse has no synchro on the c900). In fact, I think it's a good idea to go to reverse via first as a general practice, as a worn reverse gear is a fairly common problem AFAIK.

John

What John says as one solution but don't discount the possibility that the linkage might be out of adjustment or the lever joint worn.

David.

My first guess would be that your clutch is binding and not fully disengaging, does it grind if you stick it in reverse while sitting at a stop with the clutch in? Could be the linkage is out of adjustment too.

There are two things which are most likely to be causing your problems. First off, it sounds like the clutch may be dragging. How does the pedal feel? Do you feel resistance right at the top of the pedal travel? Where is the clutch 'bite' point along the pedal travel? It should be roughly in the middle. If it's right at the bottom then it means the clutch isn't fully disengaging. This could be because of a worn mechanical linkage, or because of air in the hydraulics.

The second thing, which I think is very likely in your case is that the link between the gear shifter and the gearbox is misaligned. Aligning this is fairly straightforward, no special tools required. It would be very useful to you if you had a manual - the Haynes or the Bentley (both Amazon).

David. taht appears to be a 9000 part. PFS don't have similar part listed for the 900, is it the same part?

No, it's nothing like it.

I do feel resistance at the top, yes. Again, not a great frame of reference (I'll have to ask a friend to let me sit in their driver seat to get some perspective). I would say that the clutch is fairly resistive all the way down. BUT, the catch point does seem to be about halfway. The other thing about this is that it's usually easy to shift into other gears -- there are just a few problem gears; I'm not good at getting off from a standstill in 3rd, though.

Someone else mentioned that perhaps the clutch isn't properly disenguaging, but it's not that it grinds in the gears just that it is often very stubborn about going into gear at all -- and it doesn't help to push harder :)

This sounds very likely. I do actually have the Bentley manual -- and it has been very helpful for fixing some switches & electrical problems. I will research the linkage adjustment. I don't have a lot of mechanical know-how, but do have time and am eager to learn.

Thanks (everyone!) for the very helpful responses. It sounds like it's probably a misaligned shifter/gearbox linkage.

Thanks again, Hans

Yes I realise that, I was trying to be helpful with the general part type suggestion in case you weren't familiar. I don't know about the

:)

David.

Thanks for the suggestion. It looks like this page has the corresponding C900 part (?)

Sounds like that'd be a more involved repair/replacement than the linkage adjustment, so I should probably start by trying to adjust the linkage and see if that helps.

Thanks, Hans

hans Thanks. Yes that should be the part. looks very similar to the 9000 one listed on the PFS site though.

Shifting from 1st to 2nd should not be hard - follow the other postings with shifter alignment checks. Shifting into 1st from a stop is not easy in the Classic manual transmission. I found the best was to come to a stop and take it out of 1st at the last second. If you take it out of

Shift into the the non-synchro reverse takes two steps. You fot it right by shifting into 3rd first, then into reverse. The second step to try is what the people who learned on non-synchro transmissions long ago. They called it "double clutching". Depress the clutch , pull the shifter out of gear. Release the clutch and press it in again to move to the next gear. You would do the same to get it into reverse, press and release the clutch several times and then shift into reverse.