I have a Ricardo transaxle that's running very well but I just have one intermittent issue. This issue occurred as soon as the car was finished so was likely in the box when I got it. So the issue is when changing from 3rd to 4th I sometimes cannot engage 4th. It feels like a hard block at the selector/shifter. I can wiggle the shifter while trying to engage 4th but it will not go in. There is no synchro whine or anything. I can go down the gears and up and still get blocked. The only way to engage 4th when this happens is to engage 5th and then go back to forth. Going to 6th does not help. After getting 4th engaged the box works for a variable time (can be for many 3rd to 4th shifts) and then baulks at 4th again for no apparent reason.
I have also observed this even with the car at standstill not running. Again exactly the same symptom and engaging 5th is the only way to get 4th. The only other thing I have noticed is an occasional small gear dog ring crunch from 2nd to 3rd as if I beat the synchro as the shift has an intermittent uncharacteristically low to no synchro resistance. I do not know if this is related. As the main issue 3rd to 4th issue is a simple non cross-gate change this is most surprising. I posted the questions below on the Ford GT forum as they have a lot of good Ford GT (where my transaxle came from) tech. There were some good relies but no fix. Any offers to send it back to the USA were obviously very expensive.
1) I cannot see any selector anomalies or adjustment issues with the ford short shifter or cables. Can this be some sort of cable/shifter adjustment issue?
2) Is it worth pulling the selector housing assembly off the side of the transmission and looking for something on the selector assembly? With an intermittent issue this could be hard. I don’t even know if it is possible to peek in that part of the box without major disassembly.
3) Could it be an internal gear stack issue where a stack is moving in a way it’s not designed to and fouling the change?
4) Could it be oiling? I am using the OE coolant but have fitted an external cooler.
While a few people gave me some options they all involved getting the box out and pulling it down. So before I took this route I decided to have a look myself. Thinking about the issue I thought it would be best to look at the selector assembly as the issue could be there. Inspection of all the detents showed no issues. So off with the selector housing on the side of the transaxle. I could not see any issues with the selector assembly. So a peek into the box :shrug:
And what did I find, the 3/4 selector bush had fallen out of the selector!!!!! Hoorah :thumbsup:
You can see it highlighted in yellow below and the original image after that.
I have also attached a link to a video of the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoZ075ZPlDw
So this explained the symptoms perfectly as it jammed when the bush fell out as the bush then became a spacer and worked when it partially slid back in. Selecting 5th pushed the bush in a little and then selecting 4th was possible, I am so happy I found this.
To fix it I cleaned the bush and selector bore with brake clean while not getting it in the gearbox. I used Loctite® 620™ on the bush and tapped it securely back into the selector bore. It took a bit of tapping so its not a loose fit and should not come out again.
Thanks to all those I contacted that had ideas about the issue. None guessed this one but your support was appreciated. Now off to finishing other little things on the car. I'm so happy to have fixed this. If anyone has this issue this is an easy fix.
