R154 Conversion - Brown Trouser Moment!

Finally got around to starting the gearbox conversion today.

The new gearbox I picked up on ebay has been sitting in the garage, untouched, for the past two months since its arrival and the car has been hovering over the pit area since I fitted the P.S. cooler and controversial duct

Removed the W58 with little in the line of drama. I really do love working on this car, despite a few hard to reach areas in general it really is a pleasure tackling big jobs.

Anyway as I said things were going along merrily and I had just booked an hour of my good mate's time for later in the day to help me lift the R154 into position so I thought I'd best get cracking on the clutch assembly and a general once-over of the box.

Finally, it was unstrapped from the pallet and I lifted it up onto a workbench to get a good look at it. My first thought was "nice box, looks clean & dry, no obvious butchery, result!". Then I fitted the gearstick to try all the cogs, just as a precaution.

With the stick fitted it looked to be in neutral but when the input shaft was turned the output shaft rotated in the opposite direction indicating the box was actually in reverse.

"Maybe it's just my perception of neutral" I thought, and tried to move the gearstick.

Nothing.

No way could the gearstick be moved from "neutral" but yet the box was still firmly in reverse.

"Here we go, my first case of burnt fingers" I thought, "CURSE YOU EBAY!!". And with the fact that two months had passed since purchasing the box I wasn't relishing the prospect of putting my case toward the seller.

So I did what any self-respecting tight-wad would do, I opened the fecker in a desperate bid to save myself from further grief & expense.

Lo & behold, what should I find when I took the back cover off?

The selector for reverse & fifth had moved forward, selecting reverse, while the selector arm had still been in neutral. By its design the arm couldn't move out of neutral and reverse gear couldn't be un-selected once this had happened.

Without knowing the history of the gearbox or indeed the car it came from I can only guess that something like this could occur in a heavy front impact, but only if the car was in neutral at the time, so a more plausible scenario is a bit of rough handling once the box had been removed or was being removed from the car.

So with the selector returned to its neutral position I quicky refitted the rear cover and gearstick to check if all was well. And to my sheer surprise I now have five forward gears and reverse is now an option instead of being de rigueur.

Everything I had originally removed was then stripped again and refitted, sealed & torqued properly.

To say I am relieved is putting it mildly, I also noticed that the gear oil remnants in the box were free of any major bits of gear and synchro so there is still a chance I might have bought something resembling a useable gearbox.

Take what you will from my little cautionary tale I just thought I'd share the emotional rollercoaster of a day I've just had but perhaps the above might prove useful to someone else down the line if they find themselves faced with a similar problem.

The conversion shall continue tomorrow, seconds out, round 2!

-Damien-

Sounds like a lucky escape, good job on checking this first!

Think the same thing happened mine before I sold it on, it's common with them when you take the gearstick out I think

A very well written, informative and jolly tale, thank you for sharing. I also commend you on your punctuation, because mine sir... is shite.

*Phew* I'm glad that worked out for you in the end. I felt for you there!