Hi,
I bought a clubman about a year ago. It didnt run. The problem was the clutch (release bearing specifically). I fixed this , took it around the block, and proceeded to take the car off the road for about a year as i did bodywork etc to it.

Today i finally put it all back together and took it for a long drive. To my horror, most of the time i can not get into fourth gear. Also, occasionally it pops out of third gear.

I had a play around with the adjustment bolt for the clutch , and kept trying the gears (without the car running). This didnt seem to help much.

Does my gearbox need a rebuilt?

On a side note, the car has a coolant leak from the head, the part that the thermostat housing bolts onto .The thread where the bolt closest to the radiator goes is stuffed .I guess someone put a bolt too big in there and cracked the block.

I tried to weld it up with my arc welder, but it doesnt seem to seal the leak - my guess is that with the engine running, the vibrations are cracking the weld.

Put a bit of gasket cement on there in an attempt to bodge it up temporarily and this also failed.

any advice?? Would love to get my car on the road!!

What sort of gearbox is it? Remote or rod change? My guess would be that you need to adjust the selector. Failing that, I would pull the selector out and check the fork for wear.

Ryan

_________________
Ryan Filippi
Minis In The Gong
[email protected]
www.minisinthegong.com.au

Re the head, IMO it is now toasted, I'd fit another.
The head is not steel, it is cast iron, it does not arc weld well. Heads are still pretty common, see what numbers are on the top of it.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

i have the rod change box.

seems such a waste to scrap the head just because of this small coolant leak...

what do you mean by adjusting the selector?

Don't take it too badly. I had to junk a Mark 1 S head for a similar reason.

Hence my username

_________________
1967 Cooper S - new front bearings to do.
1965 Cooper S shell - Slow progress. No time or money!
1966 Deluxe- next rustoration!
Mk 2 & XJ6 Jags. Less said the better.

Hey mate. The head isnt knackered. It will just need to be removed and welded properly.
I had a 12G295 head that had the same problem. In fact a piece was broken off the head so I screwed a stud in and welded it to the head to seal everything up.
If its just a bog standard 998 head, i'm pulling one off a motor this weekend and you can have it

With regards to the gearbox i would say theres a problem with either the syncros or your 3/4th selector fork or hub. Def a prob in there somewhere.

Where abouts are you? South or North?

Clae

_________________
- '74 Clubman Ute project

north mate. does the box need to be removed?

the head number is 1015 10486
if that means anything to you?

is that the engine number on the block in front of the thermostat housing?

_________________
- '74 Clubman Ute project

in front of thermostat housing...

Unless it's an upgrade. What's the current head/motor?

If that's the engine number I'm pretty sure that it is an 1100cc engine.....

_________________
.... 1977 Leyland Mini S .....
.... 1972 Leyland Clubman .....
.... 1973 Leyland Mini Van ....

Head should be a 12G202 then, this is cast on top either under the rockers, or on near the thermostat (if it's the later 202).

I'm not saying iron heads can't be welded (yes I have done them) but they need to be taken off the motor, cleaned, prepped and preheated, welded then cooled slowly. And decked if distorted.
For a 202, unless it's had $big spent on porting, I would just fit another 202, there are plenty about.

_________________
DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

The rod change box has a rod that pushes the gear back and forth (from 1st to 2nd, and 3rd to 4th), and twists to select which gear hub is moving. The selector is easy to dismantle and remove, and requires no special tools.

If you get in the car, remove the gear shift boot by taking out the 4 screws and lift off the stick (the gear knob twists off). You will then see a small dome at the base of the stick that can be twisted off. The stick, plate and spring can then be removed. You can have a look in the small box that houses the selector to check for wear. If the box doesn't look straight, it may have been bottomed out at some stage, and you may need to straighten it up. This can fix some selector issues.

It's worth a look even if you're not mechanically minded - there are only a few parts, and it's easy to assemble.

I would guess that the selector box is twisted, so it's not getting the full throw for 3rd/4th. That would explain why 3rd will go in but sometimes pop out, and why you can't select 4th.

If you attach the rotating shift rod to the gearbox upside down and then put the gearstick back in you will have a really sloppy shift and no 3rd or 4th gear.

I did that once.

The easiest way to identify if that is your problem is remove the gearstick and shine a torch down the hole. The eye the gearstick fits into should oreintated as shown in thie diagram below. The eye is item 13:



If its upside down, the solution is to remove the gearstick and roll pin at the gearbox, rotate the rod 180 degrees and reattach everything.

_________________
Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

There are a couple of things You can check before you think about taking the box out,
First take the gear lever out and check the slot on one side of the ball section of the gear lever, the sides of the slot should be straight if it is worn badly it will make selection of gears difficult. Then check the pin that fits in the slot, this pin should be round. My guess is it may have worn flats on the side, a TEMPORY fix is achieved by turning the pin around so that the round surface is in the gear lever slot., I would then check the coupling between the gear box and the rod change, check for wear on the roll pins and the coupling itself a lot of replacement ones are not hard and wear badly
If all this checks out then your selector problems may be internal

_________________
" A Hundred Years From Now It will not Matter what my Bank Acount Was,
The Sort Of House I Lived in, Or The Kind Of Car I drove ... But The World May Be A Better Place
Because I was Once Important In The Life Of A Child"