Triumph Repair: triumph spitfire gearbox

Question
my Spartan kit car has a spifire gearbox but it is stuck in first
gear help please !

Answer
Mr. Harvey,

First do you have access to the top of the transmission? There were two basic types of gearboxes used in Spitfires. The later one was called a single rail gearbox because it used only one shift rail from the shift tower to inside the transmission and the older one had three shift rails. The single rail box has a sheet metal cover over the top of the gearbox and the older 3 rail box had a cast aluminum cover that extended from the front of the box all the way back and had the shift tower as part of the cover.

If you don't have access to the top of the gearbox with what ever type of body you have, You will have to remove it to do anything to the shifting because all of shift controls are in the top. There is only a remote chance that anything can cause it to stick in 1st gear at the shift tower.

How does the shift lever feel? loose and floppy, and the gearbox is in low gear? Or is it in low gear and the shift lever is stiff in the low gear position and won't move?

There are many things that can cause it to be stuck in low gear.

First ID which gearbox you have and tell me if you can gain access to the top.

Howard