Gear box..... something odd.

Dear Dorothy Dix,
Something a little odd happened this morning, again, it happened once before about a 2 months ago (3 or 4 hundred miles)
Jumped on Ed for a short ride to a mates place and noticed that when I went for second gear, the lever hadn't returned to the
neautral position after I selected first gear.
So I pushed it down and it went into second ok but didn't return up to the neautral position again.
This happened with every gear change.
Now I've had brocken return springs in gear boxes before and started to assume this was the problem,
or that the lever was slipping on the shaft, which I immediately checked. No that wasn't it.
Not wanting to turn for home I carried on regardless and after 20 or so gear changes it came good.
This happened once before and came good by itself then, as well, after which I changed the gear box oil as we
didn't do that during the rebiuld.
This happened about 6 hours ago, I just went out to see if it was sticking again, and everything is fine.
Any body had a simmilar problem, or got any ideas.
Tight bearing or bush ? or selector?
On my way home I made many extra gear changes to try to make it happen again, nope,
it is silky smooth.
AC.

The Mimis .

Mimis my ass. Your clutch plates are gummed up from gearbox oil drifting from the pushrod . Get the seal kit.

If the gear lever isn't returning after selection, then the gearchange lever shaft (which is part of the the pawl carrier) [10] is probably sticking? Maybe it's tight in the outer cover bush or O-ring, or the shaft is binding on the gearchange ratchet plate pivot spindle [33] which passes through it (to the gear indicator pointer), or the spindle O-ring [6] may have swelled or started to disintegrate. Or perhaps the spring has weakened?

http://www.nortonmotors.de/ANIL/Norton% ... &Plate=006

Thanks,
Clutch rod seal kit was fitted when rebiuld was done, approx 1200 miles ago,
and was working perfectly when new Barnett plates fitted about 250 miles ago.
Sadly the G/Box hasn't been apart yet.
Next job I spose.
AC.

There pretty basic , theres not much more than a few dozen parts in there , And they dont usually bite .
Unless you stick your fingers somewhere stupid dissasembling or checking the selector action .

Yes it sounds like the outer case gear change mechanism is the area to check out. There is a large hair spring that springs the lever back to a central position, every time it is moved. Also I would check the spring anchor, this is bolted into the outer case, this can bind on the gearshift and make it stick. So all in all you do not have to delve too far in to the innards. All I can suggest is get the two springs and make sure the bushes and or o-rings are not binding. And she should be back to normal again.

Cheers Richard

Yes Ive seen exactically this sticky shifter syndrome.
Disassemble outer cover shifter mechanism,
clean/wash rust/crud out,
lube,
reassemble,
worked like new

+1 on the outer case cover rebuild. Mine would not upshift so I replaced both the springs and cleaned and rebuilt everything. A little trick a friend showed me was to make sure the shift lever shaft is a little proud of the shift lever when you put it all back together. Don't want anything binding up. Shifts like a dream now.

AC said he's up on the outter cover gizmo's so i'd suspect he's got what Peel had happen, worn bushes altering the cog angles that bare on the shifter dog faces to wear them down, which is a bit deeper than area suggested so far, ugh. The pawl spring issues I've had all were sudden failures to shift not interment like the dog faces going away.

Mayby Heat :?: Something tight when cold,then free's up with a bit of engine heat, stranger thing's happened to the titanic...or was that Cold ?

I have had a similar issue when the change lever was "sticking". All I had to do was remove the outer cover. I found there were parts somewhat stiff. I cleaned everything. Made sure all parts moved freely. Reassembled and the problem was solved. Sometimes its just that easy/simple. Basic service: probably a routine maintenance check for this in there some where. lol
Dox

I worked on a friend's 1973 Norton recently that had the same problem. Here's what we found.




New hairpin spring, problem solved.

Had that problem Aussie. Was told by a Forum Member to make a mark next to the Gearshift Stop Plate as a reference and loosen the 2 bolts and see if plate can be moved slightly and tighten. Put the cover on and go through the gear shifts and see if returns without sticking before securing the cover screws.

Thanks guys, Hopefully not too much of a problem.
Will get in there soon, weather is perfect at this time of year.
AC.

Travelerjerry makes a good point with a particularly good photo as a reference. I have found that when assembling these components the shaft that goes through the shifter pawl to engage the return spring can sometimes touch the bracket held by the two bolts circled in red in jerry's photo, the mounting holes are not a tight fit and allow some leeway for avoiding this. it must be pointed out however that this would typically show up after a spring replacement or some other disturbance of the components and probably wouldn't come and go as Aussie combat is experiencing.

Hope its just an oil drain and otter cover task but do note the rust proneness of the items above oil level so might clean em to clear coat or color paint em to delay the decay.