MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

TR parts and Triumph parts, TR bits, Triumph Car Spares and accessories are available for TR2, TR3, TR3A, TR4, TR4A, TR5, TR6, TR7, TR8, Spitfire and Stag and other TR models are available from British car spares and parts company LBCarCo.

Triumph TR6 - No Reverse

It happened once before, and happened again. I can't put in reverse.
First time I pushd it out and drove around a bit,then it was OK. This time I pushed it back a little bit, put in first, then I finally could put it in reverse.
It happened once in a while I miss the reverse, but I can always able to put it back in. And never have trouble in first gear.
Can anyone explain this?
Paddy
Paddy Kan

Have you tried pumping your clutch pedal several times in quick succession - then try it nicely into reverse ?

Reverse gear is non-synchromesh. Try the pumping above, then slip the grar stick into the gate for 2nd gear quickly, then quickly out again and over into reverse.

It should work easier. If not, it has to be something inside that is worn.

Don Elliott, Original Owner 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

I have also found that going into something like second or third with the clutch depressed, then going to reverse while the clutch is still depressed can be of help(yea, yea, I can hear the jokes now. "My clutch's mood ring, it's turning black. It's so depressed").
SteveP

I can't tell you haw many times I have been in a TR convoy and there is always at least one TR2 to TR3A owner who is ahead or behind me in traffic and he grinds away in 1st gear trying to get it into 1st (we early TR owners don't have synchomesh in 1st gear).

So I shout to the TR2 to TR3A owners in the convoy to try 2nd gear - then quickly into 1st as both Steve and I have mentioned above and VOILA as we say up here in French Canada (Eureka to you) - IT WORKS !

WOW - They are astounded at how easy it is that way.

It will also be even harder if your idle is set too high. So I suggest to Paddy to tuck his right toe under the gas pedal, pull up on the pedal and down the revs and shifting into reverse using all 3 suggestions above should make you say EUREKA !

Don Elliott - 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

I am currently getting my trans rebuilt ('72 Od) and a mechanic friend told me the proper way to engage reverse on our boxes. He says to grab second (as stated by Obi Wan Elliot) and then when in neutral he also says there is another lockout that you need to lift the lever straight up in the neutral gate then hard right to the passenger seat and back. I never had a problem engaging mine as per DE's instructions but it is amazing how smooth it is when you follow this technique even in a box with loose metal drifting around. Can anyone out there bear this out as factory recomended or is my mech. not correct.
Best regards, Keith
Keith Dixon

i recall the p.o. of my 70 tr6 telling me the same thing,can't remember if it states this in the owners
manual.
malc
malcolm

Once or twice a year I have to double pump the clutch to go into reverse..otherwise it slides right in. I just tried your method this aft and it did seem smoother and positive, I believe there is some truth to what you were told.
Charlie
Charlie Ballard

Non-sychro first, yea, that's how I lerned the trick. Learned to drive in and had as my first car a 1964 MGB. The last of the the three main engines, but still four years away from negative earth and an all syncro box. Nice little car, wish I still had it, but parents forced its departure after several tickets had been collected. Then there's the MGA Twin Cam FHC that I found at a Note Lot on Ross Avenue that they wouldn't let me buy, but that's another story.......
SteveP

Keith - I never saw it as a factory suggestion or recomendation. I never saw it written down in any TR book.

But this is the way I did it since 1958 and it's just automatic for me. I fact when I was in Virginia in June this summer at the TR races at Virginia Int'l Raceway, I went on the track for several "parade" laps and had a blast. It was here that my gearbox took 2nd and 3rd gear away from me. After this when I would start and then try to put it into 1st (as I automatically do by going into 2nd, then into first) and I couldn't get it into 2nd because it was broken, it made me realise how automatic it had become for me to do this before slipping it into 1st gear.

BTW I had the gearbox re-built in Richmond and drove it another 2300 miles before I got home.

Don Elliott, 1958 TR3A
Don Elliott

If any of this isn't clear to you 4 synchro guys, this method stops the gears from turning when it's in a gear. The clutch isn't releasing totally, so when it's in neutral and the clutch is either in or out, the gears are turning. The synchros take up the slack when you put it in gear, but reverse has no synchro. Hope this isn't insultingly simple.
Tom

Paddy,
When I had clutch trouble, it was because the clutch travel wasn't enough to disengage. You can easily measure this to verify/rule it out. Follow the line from the master cylinder down to the slave. When you step on the clutch, it moves the piston on the slave. If it moves less than a half inch, a hydraulic probem likely to be the culprit. You can do this measurement without even jacking up the car, just be sure to have the BRAKE ON and do it on a level surface (for safety-the measurement won't change.) Just lie down and reach in behind the left front wheel with a flashlight and ruler.

In my case, I bled the clutch--not enough. Then I replaced the plastic tube and voila! got up to 5/8 travel. Works great in all gears, with no special shifting skills needed.

Also, the slave piston connects to the clutch using one of three holes, and the middle one is the 'right' one. I moved mine to the top hole to get a little more movement. I'm not sure I should have, but its working.

Mark
Mark Hauser

It happen again today. So I double pumped the clutch, slipped into 2nd then into reverse. NO PROBLEM,
Thank you, Don,
and thank you all.
Paddy
Paddy Kan

This thread was discussed between 14/08/2004 and 20/08/2004

Triumph TR6 index