Triumph Repair: Spitfire slips out of reverse, northern shenandoah valley, zenith carb

Question
Hi Jim:
I just acquired a 1979 Triumph Spitfire with 19K mi on the odometer. By the looks of the vehicle body & engine that is accurate mileage and everything is original (even the Zenith carb). It sat in a Chevrolet dealer's showroom for 15 years. It's a 4 speed with overdrive.

All gears and overdrive shift smoothly and sync flawlessly except reverse. It will not go more than a couple of feet without slipping out.

Is it a transmission rebuild or is there something easier/less expensive to try first?

I live in the northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia near Winchester.

Any recommendations welcome.

Thanks,
Bill

Answer
Bill,

It may be possible that the linkage isn't moving the reverse gear to fully engage.  A starting point would be to pull the trans tunnel cover and pull the shifter assembly off the top of the trans.

If you were having problems with the other gears I'd suspect bearing/bushing wear.  Since 1-4 are working correctly it sounds more like there may have been some trans work done (the reason it was at the Chevy dealer for so long???) and the linkage for the reverse idler wasn't properly re-installed.

When properly engaged the reverse idler connects between the laygear and the 1st/2nd shifting sleeve.  So if the trans is working ok in 1st and 2nd that that rules out the shift sleeve.  And if the laygear needle bearings are worn then you'd know, just from all the noise.  So it's got to be something in the reverse idler assembly.  Either insufficient motion (shift lever linkage) or a problem with the idler bushing or the lever.

It's too bad I didn't check my email sooner, I was in Winchester Thursday night heading home from the holidays.


Cheers,

Jim

ps. Congrats on the (otherwise) good find.