Hi all,

I've always had issues with my 2nd gear grinding, and after ruling out the syncros, the selector forks and detent springs, I brought my synchros and gears into my local mini mechanic, and he reckons it's the wear on the 2nd gear cone. It's strange, because they all feel the same to me! 3rd gear wasn't giving me any trouble.

Now where can I find a new or decent second-hand 2nd gear? I understand that they are supposed to have a surface on the cone. Mine has a slightly rough surface, but not enough it seems - what should it look like when new?

got a picture?

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It's parked at my brother's house at the moment - I'll get a picture soon. It looks exactly how I'd expect it to, but they don't grip with any baulk ring.

OK, so I have some photos...







The cones look good to me, the grooves on the baulk rings all look the same on each ring (some do have bigger gaps than others, but over 30 thou).

Go in to town, chill and have a nice meal while you are waiting for opinions

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"Show me the Mini!"

does look pretty smooth - I'm no guru, but I had a look at some of mine and they're a lot more emery-paper looking than that

does a synchro ring bind up when you push it on and try to turn it?

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ok, it looks like you have a 3syncro gearbox there yeah?

so my bet would be that the Pall (inside the 1st-2nd hub) isn`t fitted or isn`t fitted correctly

this pall, (short, rounded ends, bit of metal) needs to be in the right hole inside the 1st/2nd hub
for it to work right & the outer ring needs to have it`s "Ramp" lined up with it too

otherwise you will have 2nd gear crunching all the time because the hub won1`t be activating the syncro without these 2 things being fitted correctly & lined up with eachother

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Hi MiniMan,

It's actually a 4 sync (well, it's supposed to be, 2nd gear hasn't been syncing for a long time!). I don't know of the 'pall' you're talking about - is it in the 4 syncro? As far as I know, the hub consists of the inner and outer parts, and the springs an balls.

A syncro ring doesn't bind when you push it on - but how much is it supposed to bind? Should I be able to turn it easily by hand? What's confusing is that all gears change smoothly except second - and I can't tell the binding on 2nd gear apart from the others.

@9YaTaH Funnily enough, I've never been to the red velvet lounge! I'm actually living in Hobart now, which is a pain - there isn't enough space to dismantle the mini!

oops,,, sorry, i should have looked a bit closer

no pall in your box

disregard everything i said

move along , nothing to see here

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No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Well do so next time down that way....its a top little Café

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"Show me the Mini!"

normally, if you put a synchro ring on the cone and give it a twist like you're screwing a lid on a jar, it'll bind and you won't be able to turn it by hand - it binds there and you need to unscrew it to get it off again. If none of your synchro rings will bind up on that gear, then yes, the gear is cactus

that's the way the synchromeshing works when you're driving, the synchro hub is pushed across while it's turning, the synchro ring connects with the cone, binds up and makes the gear go the same speed as the synchro hub, then the gears mesh and off you go in the new gear

or something

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if there is no air gap between the gear cone and syncro ring it will not bite, if its a new ring then the gear is worn out.

Grant

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Morris - The Original RedBull Racing

Irish Yobbo,

That second gear looks good to me, nothing obvious there.

It might be worth looking careefully at the Syncro Ring.
It may have a break in it and is spreading when it is pushed onto the cone and then springing back again.
Just a thought, I have seen this type of thing before.

CF

The gaps are all really good - the lowest was still over 30 thou, and the other 3 over 40. I think they came from the factory with about 45 or so.



I'll have another look, but I don't think that's the issue either. I tried with all my baulk rings, and none of them seem to grip.

methinks your next post should be in the "wanted" forum

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?