Gearbox pops out of first

[Social]

Hi all,
Sometimes not all the time my 1st gear jumps out on accl
Could it be the shifter being worn or is it the dreadded gearbox.

[dlb]

every time this has come up on the forum that i have seen, it has been the transmission. sorry to say it. i would start looking for a good used one now.

[Social]

Awww...
The hard part is finding a good used one.
Thanks for the info

[Petros]

You might do a trans flush (run on 50/50 ATF and gear oil, than change it out), and put some quality standard gear oil. It might help. Or at least stop it from getting worse.

when the large bearings at the ends of the gear clusters get worn it allows the cluster to move forward and back when accelerating or decleterating. the helix in the gears causes the forward/aft pressure on the gear cluster. When the wear gets bad enough than it moves far enough that the shift fork actually pushes it out of gear.

so that is one of the signs that the bearings are loose and sloppy, and should get replaced. some people fix by using a heavy elastic cord to hold in gear, but it means the trans is badly worn. this is what happens when you do not change the gear oil in the trans, most people just run the gear box oil without ever changing it.

Finding a good used transmission is far less work and less costly than doing a trans rebuild (even if you could find the parts!). Getting parts to do a trans overhaul is a problem, there appears to be no more kits anywhere in North America. Most of the bearings and seals you can still buy from the original suppliers (they are standard parts), but no syncors and no gaskets (gaskets are easy enough to make, not the syncros!)

[irowiki]

My sedan used to pop out of first gear if I was coasting downhill and engine braking. Either I didn't have it all the way in gear or the 50/50 ATF flush helped as it didn't do it after that.

[Social]

Thanks for that info it only happens hardly ever.And only in first gear... enough for me to start being concerned..The bloke i bought the car off said he just did the gearbox a few weeks before i got it so mabee its just a flush(Hope my lucky stars its all it needs)as i could not see him doing this.50/50 flush is next on the cards asap.
Thanks all for the helpfull info ^

[irowiki]

Basically, get her transmission nice and hot, drain her as per the FSM, then fill her up with 50% ATF and 50% gear lube. Then drive 50-100 miles, in all gear ranges, and at highway speeds for a while (but go easy on her). Get her nice and hot again. Then while it is all nice and hot, drain it all out!

If the lube you drain, and then the flushed drain is really dirty, you might do a second flush.

Make sure the fill plugs come off before you take off the drain plugs.

On my 81 sedan, when I bought her, second gear didn't shift right, nor did third gear. After draining the incredibly filthy gear oil, doing a 50/50 flush (I forget if I flushed it a second time) and refilling again, she drives and shifts like a champ. I need to do this to my 83 now.

[Petros]

Sounds like it just needs a good flush. if the gear oil in it is fairly recent and clean, you could just drain out half of it and add the ATF to top up. if the gear oil is dirty however, best to start out with fresh gear oil and ATF. You can use cheap gear oil for the flush however.

when you do the final fill, make sure you get all of the 4 L of gear oil in it. Refill after the flush with good quality gear oil. I would not recommend synthetic gear oil, it does not shift right with synthetic oil in it (it was not designed for it.

[Social]

Thanks Petros,That info is handy its popped out once this week so its not that bad, I will have a look at it over the weekend..I presume its the old oil.The box itself is quiet no noises at all,Its actually one of the best cars i have owned so far for its age.

[xirdneh]

you stated the guy that had the car before you had worked on the "gearbox"
did he say why?
how far did he go when he took it apart?

[Social]

He just replaced it, but I found today the clutch cable Is loose..Really loose so I will tighten that tomorrow and see how it goes

[Petros]

the clutch cable has a self-adjuster that is supposed to keep the right amount of tension/slack on it. I am sure it is the same on the right hand drive as on our left hand drive (unless you have a hydraulic clutch linkage, in that case none of this will apply). If the cable is really loose it is possible the adjuster was not set up properly or the cable is stretched past where it can adjust the tension (this means the cable needs to be replaced). but I have found stretched cables are really rare, even on cars with lots of miles on them. the self adjuster is at the top of the clutch pedal, you can see it if you slide the seat all the way back and lie down on the floor and look up under the dash. it is a white plastic gear, looks like half a big gear, with a smaller sector with teeth on it that engages the bigger half gear that holds the cable end. The smaller sector should have a spring on It that keeps it engaged (when you do a cutch or trans change, you pull the spring off to slacken the cable so it can be removed, they sometimes forget to reattach this spring and it will not adjust, leaving lots of slack in the cable). when you push on the pedal you can see how the half gear will click to the next notch to take up the cable slack. If it does not do that than see if all the parts are present and working together (check the picture in the service manual, available for down load on this forum). If it working properly but is at the end of its travel, than the cable needs to be replaced.

[Mattel]

I'm defiantly not a mechanic. But when I changed the clutch cable in my T4wd (RHD) I didn't see a self adjuster.

[Mattel]

also - when I replaced my gearbox oil with new I used a Synthetic oil and it made it change gear so much better. cost about $170 for the redline stuff but a lot cheaper than a gearbox.

[teranfirbt]

I don't know if they actually stock them, but Drivetrain.com lists an overhaul kit for our Tercels that contains all of the main bearings and syncros:
http://www.drivetrain.com/parts_catalog ... l_kit.html
Overall probably worth the money vs. trying to track down all of the parts new.

It's not too bad to do a teardown on the Tercel transaxle, procedure is in the FSM. Make sure to pay attention to small parts like the balls that key the extra low thrust washers to the output shaft, and avoid losing the snap rings that you pop off with a pair of screwdrivers.