Reverse Lockout on 5 speed (how does it work).

[KeithMac]

Hello all, I'm having trouble with my 5 speed locking out reverse.

I've narrowed it down to the shift shaft and have a spare that's been smoothed to stop the cage binding.

How does the reverse lockout work?, is it soley to stop the gearbox from selecting reverse directly after 5th gear or is there more to it than that?.

One more thing, forward and backward on the gear shifter relates to side to side movement at the shift shaft, and reverse is fully down and toward the radiator on the shift levers when looking at the engine bay?.

[ravensierra]

Hi Keith,

I recently had a similar issue on the 5-speed with reverse getting locked out, I screwed around with the shift shaft for a while and even removed the lockout but found the issue was the syncro balls and springs had fallen out of the 5/R hub, one of the springs was jammed between the hub and slider. I hope this isn't your problem as it was a very time-consuming fix!

Yes the lockout is purely to stop a 5->R shift. Left and right motion at the shifter translate to lowering and raising the shift shaft respectively, forward moves the selector towards the firewall, backward moves it towards the radiator. So reverse is UP and toward the radiator, the lower hose can interfere so check that out

[KeithMac]

Thanks for the info!, I fitted my spare modded shift shaft and it seems better but haven't driven it far yet.

Was it the gearbox out to get to the reverse synchro or did you do it in situ?.

[ravensierra]

Yes it was gearbox out, broke down the intermediate shaft to remove 5/R slider. I knew what it was as soon as I drained the oil to pull the box though as I found the syncro balls stuck to the drain plug. Lucky to not get caught between gears and take out the tranny case I guess! Actually I had to pull the box twice because I nicked the OS seal on reassembly (25-spl), real nightmare on a daily driver...

I didn't find any record of anyone else having the same problem as what I did on the net. Lots of talk about the shift shaft cage and R lockout, a couple of people saying the roll pin holding the shift fork to the rail had backed out.

[KeithMac]

Cheers!, I have my spare 18 spline 5 speed in the shed so if it comes to that I'll rebuild that one (leaking input shaft seal/bearing).

I've had the boxes out 5 times so I know your pain!.

[Chris@Rvengeperformance]

Pretty sure if you pull the end case you can replace the reverse parts without removing the trans.