7 replies to this topic

[TheFabMini]

Hi all
Ive been reading through some old posts but cant seem to find anything that sounds completely like my issue
My mini sometimes gets stuck/jammed in reverse. I can knock it out of gear so it can be rolled but its not really in neutral as Im unable to move the gearstick side to side...
I can go from neutral to reverse and be fine but a couple of times the other day it just got stuck and there seemed to be no obvious way of getting it back into neutral to select forward gears, a combination of wobbling the gearstick about or just leaving it seemed to fix it... any ideas? (No scary ones please)

[Spider]

I suspect the gearstick is jumping over the tab in the shifter that you'd normally lift the stick on to in order to select reverse.

 

To see if this is the issue, remove the bottom plate off the shifter and try again, if it all seems good, then you have the cause, in part.

 

The other part of the cause will be that the shifter body has cocked over. Check the shifter mounts and the brackets they mount to and sort that, then lift up the Gaiter inside the car, loosen (well loosen) off the bit nut on the steady bar on top of the shifter body, that should then let it relax back to it's natural position. Tighten it up again, being sure not to let the body twist.

[TheFabMini]

I suspect the gearstick is jumping over the tab in the shifter that you'd normally lift the stick on to in order to select reverse.

 

To see if this is the issue, remove the bottom plate off the shifter and try again, if it all seems good, then you have the cause, in part.

 

The other part of the cause will be that the shifter body has cocked over. Check the shifter mounts and the brackets they mount to and sort that, then lift up the Gaiter inside the car, loosen (well loosen) off the bit nut on the steady bar on top of the shifter body, that should then let it relax back to it's natural position. Tighten it up again, being sure not to let the body twist.

 

right so ive been having a mess about this morning, annoyingly i couldnt get it to replicate the problem. selected reverse and neutral then other gears no problems... took the bottom plate off and theres no obvious problems i can see. everything is nice and greasy and theres no bits hanging off...

I havent loosened off the steady bar yet because as i was under the car I was wondering about the rods. they seem to go into the gearbox at a bit of an angle and i just wanted to check this was normal. my logic is that they should be going in almost straight on as surely the slight offset wont help with the little oil seal doing its job

 

 

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[TheFabMini]

Ok so after taking it all apart and putting it back together I still have this reverse problem...
When stuck in reverse I took the plate off the bottom of the selector and it still wouldnt go into neutral so we can rule out that part being the problem...
I ended up loosening the steady bar it went back into neutral... its hard to say if this is the real cure because each time Ive had the issue it seems to fix itself with me just proding about a bit of everything.

I dont know how relevant it is but I have successfully gone from reverse to neutral/1st quite a few times without issue. The problem seems to happen whenever I reverse on any sort of incline, for example when I reverse up a slope onto a driveway etc. I cant think of an example wheres it got stuck on flat ground but always when Ive reversed up something
Help!

[Spider]

The other item it could be, though usually has other symptoms, is a bush in Reverse Gear itself coming out.

 

The later Reverse Gears had two small bushes in them and these can come out and cause a jam, though, usually it also get's very stuff across the Neutral gate (ie, moving the stick across from say 2nd to 3rd).

[TheFabMini]

The other item it could be, though usually has other symptoms, is a bush in Reverse Gear itself coming out.
 
The later Reverse Gears had two small bushes in them and these can come out and cause a jam, though, usually it also get's very stuff across the Neutral gate (ie, moving the stick across from say 2nd to 3rd).

All 4 forward gears feel fine, Ive never driven another old mini but they seem to go into gear very nicely.
Im guessing this Bush isnt a 2 minute job to fix

[Spider]

 

The other item it could be, though usually has other symptoms, is a bush in Reverse Gear itself coming out.
 
The later Reverse Gears had two small bushes in them and these can come out and cause a jam, though, usually it also get's very stuff across the Neutral gate (ie, moving the stick across from say 2nd to 3rd).

All 4 forward gears feel fine, Ive never driven another old mini but they seem to go into gear very nicely.
Im guessing this Bush isnt a 2 minute job to fix

 

 

The bush in reverse might take 5 minutes (in our dreams   ) but I doubt this is the issue here especially as all other gears select nicely.

[TheFabMini]

 

The other item it could be, though usually has other symptoms, is a bush in Reverse Gear itself coming out.
 
The later Reverse Gears had two small bushes in them and these can come out and cause a jam, though, usually it also get's very stuff across the Neutral gate (ie, moving the stick across from say 2nd to 3rd).

All 4 forward gears feel fine, Ive never driven another old mini but they seem to go into gear very nicely.
Im guessing this Bush isnt a 2 minute job to fix
 

 
The bush in reverse might take 5 minutes (in our dreams   ) but I doubt this is the issue here especially as all other gears select nicely.

Im gonna go with avoiding reverse and end up with a very strong right leg as I put it out the door to push myself back