So, last week had a bit of a mishap where by my striking arm decided to come apart while driving and left me in 3rd gear. after a quick ring to JeffTT at zedworld, a new arm arrived the next day.

 

A bit of welding work on the old one and i could drive it very carefully to my friends house in Corby to finally get to work on it.

 

 

Though once welded, you need to leave your gear stick like this, or you will snap the weld when pushing left and right to get 1st / 2nd and 5th / reverse.

 

the removed arm looked like this.

 

 

Not the neatest weld, but only had to get me 15miles. and worked quite well. the U-Joint actually gives you left and right movement when the gearstick is bolted to the plate that holds the dust boot, and boy does that dust boot keep the heat out the car lol.

 

 

So anyway, how to change it.

 

Jack car and make sure its secure in the air, the idea we had was get the gearbox to lean back and tackle from the top, unfortunately this doesn't provide enough room, so its gearbox off time, which by the time you have the gearbox in a position to lean back, is only a case of removing the clutch slave, starter motor, gearbox wiring and gearbox bolts.

 

So removal.

 

Undo battery connections

Remove 4 x 10mm bolts holding small tunnel brace to car.

Undo the exhaust and remove.

Undo 6x 10mm nuts holding heat shield on to car tunnel, this will expose the prop shaft.

With the hand brake on, use 2 17mm spanners and undo the 4 bolts connecting the prop shaft in the center, make sure you mark with tipex or something before separating the join so you can line them up again when putting them back together. I find it best to have the rear of the car in the air, that way you can release the hand brake after doing 2 bolts, rotate the prop shaft 180 degrees, put the hand brake on and do the other 2 bolts.

Undo 2 x 17mm bolts holding the center prop bearing to the underside of the car (assuming you do not have a one piece prop)

leave the rear of the propshaft in the gearbox so as to stop oil leaking out.

Support the gearbox using a trolly jack.

Undo turbo intake pipes and throttle body pipes, you only have to undo them, you can leave the other end attached, its just so the engine can lean back, it will pull its self clear of the pipes.

Undo 1 x13 mm nut on end of starter motor and remove live battery cable, unclip starter motor single wire from gearbox loom.

Undo 1 x 14 mm bolt and 1x14mm nut holding starter motor to gearbox and remove.

Undo 2 x 12mm bolts holding clutch slave to gearbox and remove, cable tie this out of the way.

Undo 1x 12mm nut connecting the gear leave to the striking arm, remove center bolt, then 4 x 10 mm bolts holding gear lever support from gearbox and remove

Now supporting the gearbox, remove 6 x 14mm bolts holding gear box rear support to body work of the car.

Now lower the rear of the gearbox gently

Using 2x 10 inch extensions and 2 x 3in extensions and a 14mm socket, undo 2 x gearbox bolts on top of bell housing, you can also get to the 2 bolts just down and either side of the top bolts this way if you wish but you can also get to these using a U-jointed socket extension from the sides. remove the easier to get to gearbox bolts from around the edges of the gearbox

Unplug gearbox sensors and move wire clear and cable tie out of the way.

 

The gearbox should be able to come away from the engine, i used a breaker bar in through the starter motor opening, resting against the clutch pressure plate housing, lift the gearbox level to release the pressure on the center spline inside the gearbox, and gently lever the gearbox off and away from the engine. lower gearbox to the floor. you might need a hand with this if the prop shaft is still in the rear of the gearbox, i left it in as id recently changed clutch and the gearbox oil was still fresh, the prop has a tendency when the car is only a few inches high to dig into the ground when moving the gearbox clear and lowing it so you need to be aware of this.

 

Now you do not need to pull the gearbox out from under the car.

 

On top of the gearbox is a black metal plate near the rear where the striking arm comes out.

remove 6 x 10mm bolts holding this in place, there is a small spring and floating ball to be aware of here, so pay attention and be careful when removing the plate.

Loosen dust boot from striking arm

 

Image shown has pin already knocked out, but this is what it looks like under the plate, there is a gasket holding the spring and floating ball in place for me here, so i was gentle enough not to disturb it.

 

To detach the striking arm from the rest of the gearbox, there is 2 small pins, one inside the other, these need to be knocked out using two different size center punches

 

Knock them all the way through and wiggle the arm free from this and the gearbox

Edited September 22, 201312 yr by vodkashots

You can use a magnet to retrieve the pins from where they fell in the oil well.

 

 

Pay attention to how the old arm was aligned, there is a raised bit at the end where the gear stick bolts too, this needs to be facing up, also the ball joint part of the internals that you pulled the striking arm from, is also directional and sits only one way, pay close attention to the rotation of that before removing the striking arm and after removing it from the gearbox.

 

Now, fitting the new arm is easy, just slot it back through, and into the ball joint part and push all the way, i used the large center punch to align the holes up, place the locking pins into the hole and tap them back in, put the big one in first, then tap the small one into it.

 

 

Connect the dust boot with the drain hole facing down (there is a small drain hole on it. as can be seen in image 2 above)

 

Replace the metal plate and bolt down.

 

You are now done, gearbox fitting is a reversal of how you took it off, if you havent already done so, as the gearbox is off, it might be a good idea to replace a few things while you are their.

 

a list of other optional things to replace.

 

- Rear crank seal

- Clutch

- Clutch release fork

- Clutch release bearing

- Clutch release pivot ball

- Gearbox oil

 

Hope this helps someone, as i couldn't find a write up for this job and its not uncommon.

 

My only assumption on how this U-Joint failed, is the gearbox at some point was lifted using it, as its not designed to take weight, im sure this has bent the ends and eventually the bearings have worked them selves loose.

 

Below is a location guide.

Green - striking arm

Blue - Pin to be knocked out

Red - Dust boot

Purple - Spring and ball that you need to be very careful of.

 

Below is location of striking arm related to gearbox

Blue arrow - striking arm

Red arrow - U-Joint that failed.

Edited September 22, 201312 yr by vodkashots

Great write up Vodkashots.

I will find this very useful when I remove my gearbox. Hopefully over the winter months.

You will probably find your in-box littered with additional questions when I inevitably get stuck. lol

Nice thread Vods.:thumbup1:

great thread Ian:bow:

Thanks guys, Jaikai is there a reason why 2 of my images are not showing in post 2? (never mind re did them and now they are showing)

Edited September 22, 201312 yr by vodkashots

Great write up bud, very helpful. :thumbup1: