Ford Focus 1600 petrol (X reg 2000) manual gearbox issues

Third gear...middle aged woman driver. Mostly used around town?

My bet is on a worn synchro.

Ouch! I hope not! It's not grinding mind, it's just difficult to physically find the 'notch' for third- you have to get it in just the right place or the lever won't physically shift upwards into the third gear 'slot', if you see what I mean.

Dave

Ouch! I hope not! It's not grinding mind, it's just difficult to physically find the 'notch' for third- you have to get it in just the right place or the lever won't physically shift upwards into the third gear 'slot', if you see what I mean.

Morse

"Morse" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@pipex.net:

Could well be just worn linkages, hopefully external to the gearbox.

When compared to your car, does the gear lever centralise snappily when in neutral? Or does it just flop about when in the middle? If the latter, it may just have a broken gear lever centralising spring.

If that is the case, three quid and 20 minutes is about the bottom line to replace it.

Chris

Learn to double declutch (or at least match the revs reasonably closely) and forget about it.

in 2nd, accelerate, ease off, clutch in, neutral, clutch out, wait, WAIT, clutch in, third, clutch out, go.

(Takes deep breath, waits for comments...)

I'm inclined to think that TBH. The gearbox is silent, never jumps out of gear and the gearchange is, apart from the fiddly third, slick and smooth with no grinding or crashing.

Hopefully it is just the linkages- it really is a lovely car, it could easily pass for two years old bodywork-wise. It's just a shame it's the beige interior model, it's a bugger to keep clean :-)

Dave

I can already do that no problem :-) When you've driven as many knackers as I have, you have no choice but to learn that technique. It makes no difference in this case though.

It's a lost art, blame these newfangled syncro boxes!

Dave

Now that would be good news! I'm taking it for a spin tomorrow so I'll let you know what it's like.

Dave

what does this do ?

Just caught a bit of this thread and wondered what the above was about ?

When I learned to drive I was told to ease off the gas, clutch in, 3rd let clutch out and gas.

But then I did learn by a crazy old grandad :)

It (approximately) matches the speed of some of the rotating bits in the gearbox with the speed of others, so that when you change from one gear to another the two gears that are being pushed into meshing are going at pretty much identical speeds.

Syncromesh is a combination of gear tooth shape and a sprung extra bit of gear which absorbs the 'graunch' and lines the teeth up if the speeds are too different. If the syncro is worn or non-existent (1960s era cars-ish? Or reverse in most cars too) then the gears will either crunch into place or just not go in, like the OP posted.

If the speed of the various shafts in the box has been matched by letting the engine revs slow from the high revs in second to the lower revs needed for the same roadspeed in third then the syncromesh has nothing to do and the gears will change smoothly even without it.

It's all about letting the gearbox bits match speeds with the engine and roadwheels.

You can even do it with no clutch at all if you practice. Take it out of second, wait for the revs to drop to where they would be in third then snick it into third. Once you get the feel for it it works well 95% of the time. I've driven from Worcester to Cardiff without using the clutch except when stoppped.

He may be still be crazy but in this case he was right, for a modern gearbox. Don't worry about it!

Which won't make a blind bit of difference if it's linkages rather than syncromesh problems. Still, could help in the diagnosis.

Tim

The 'side to side' selector cable needs adjusting.

Tim..

"Tim (remove obvious)" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@bt.com...

That would make sense, thanks.

Morse

It seems you're right, Chris. The lever stays wherever you leave it (side to side in neutral) with no spring action at all. The lever has definite side to side friction in neutral as well, as if cables are binding.

Dave