Triumph Repair: Gearshift assembly dowel, forward gears, machine screw

Question
Hi Jim. I've gotten your excellent advice before and I'm back again! I have a 75 Spitfire. This situation is regarding the gearshift cap. I don't know how else to describe it, it is the metal cap cover that is where the gearshift lever enters the shifting mechanism. It is held in place by a small metal pin; the cap fits over the pin and then one turns the cap about 1/8 of a turn to lock it in place. Anyway, the cap keeps the spring in place...I hope I am being clear on this. Anyway, this little metal pin has a habit of coming loose and then the metal cap comes away from the housing and consequently the gearshift lever is free to wander about! Using it in the forward gears is not really a problem but finding reverse when it does this is a bit of a pain. The mechanic who last worked on this put lock-tight on the pin, trying to keep it from coming loose, but didn't work. Any ideas on how to secure this thing? Is there an alternative piece of hardware that could substitute for the little pin/dowel that maybe would not come loose so easily? As far as I know, in order to get to the assembly, I have to remove the radio and the radio mount console, then remove the carpeting...Thanks for any ideas. -Bob

Answer
Bob,

I'm not sure what happened.. it sounds like a previous owner was a bit ham fisted with the shift lever... probably lifting it to get into reverse.  Normally those pins are in for life.

As to replacing it... there is no "official" replacement, as I said it was supposed to be there for the lifetime of the tranmission.

One fix would be to get another transmission (maybe a trashed one) and have yours reassembled with the tailshaft housing from the other trans.  Not cheap or easy... but it's a straightforward solution.

The only other thing I can think of is to remove the transmission cover and tap the hole the pin fits into and put a machine screw in place.  I'd guess you need something like a 6-32 pan head machine screw... maybe 3/4" long.  Test fit it, and if it's ok then loctite it in place

There are actually 2 pins, one on each side of the "cap".  So you might need to do the fix on both sides.


Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Jim