Jump to content
SAU Community

Rb20 Gearbox Jammed

liampire
 Share

Recommended Posts

liampire Contributor

liampire

Posted
Posted

I recently removed the front main seal of my gearbox to replace gasket as it was leaking. When it was off i saw three pin like rods (which i now know are the ends of the selecting rods). I have pushed the bottom one in with my finger out of curiosity and it pushed in. Not thinking anything of it I put everything back together and went to select gears and now it seems like the gearbox is stuck in first gear. However the position of the gear selector in the cabin appears to be in neutral. I drove the car and you cannot select any gears but can drive it in 1st gear. I have unbolted a sensor on the gearbox and was able to push the rod back into place (the one that I had pushed in) but it made no difference and still stuck in first.

Has anyone experienced this before?

Here is a picture. Main seal is removed. The rod at the bottom is the one that has been pushed in.

dsc00240r.th.jpg

Thanks in advance,

Liam.

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/260980-rb20-gearbox-jammed/
Share on other sites
SteveL Mentor

SteveL

Posted
Posted
I recently removed the front main seal of my gearbox to replace gasket as it was leaking. When it was off i saw three pin like rods (which i now know are the ends of the selecting rods). I have pushed the bottom one in with my finger out of curiosity and it pushed in. Not thinking anything of it I put everything back together and went to select gears and now it seems like the gearbox is stuck in first gear. However the position of the gear selector in the cabin appears to be in neutral. I drove the car and you cannot select any gears but can drive it in 1st gear. I have unbolted a sensor on the gearbox and was able to push the rod back into place (the one that I had pushed in) but it made no difference and still stuck in first.

Almost certainly the striker arm is out of place in relation to the engagement strikers on the selector rods. Also the selector rod interlock balls are what is preventing you selecting other gears.

Only way to fix it is to drop the extension housing, reposition the selector rods to their correct location (ie gearbox in neutral for re-assembly purposes) and then bolt up the extension housing so that the striker arm engages the selector rod strikers correctly.

liampire Contributor

liampire

Posted
  • Author
Posted

SteveL - Thanks for your input. I have the car up on jacks ready to take the box out tomorrow so I can sort it all out. The anticipation for this car is intense as it will be putting out some decent numbers on standard rb20 engine (230-240kw). I am so frustrated that I can't select gears!

battery - I always make my own gaskets. A roll of gasket paper costs $8 and getting genuine stuff is way too expensive and too far for me to drive and I believe my handmade gaskets are better anyway. See picture below for the front main seal gasket. It's .8mm jointing paper. Use with gasket sealer and you have perfect seal.

2LV8ETR - I am not a mechanic but learn quickly through disassembly and diagrams.

dsc00233t.th.jpg

battery Mentor

battery

Posted
Posted
battery - I always make my own gaskets. A roll of gasket paper costs $8 and getting genuine stuff is way too expensive and too far for me to drive and I believe my handmade gaskets are better anyway. See picture below for the front main seal gasket. It's .8mm jointing paper. Use with gasket sealer and you have perfect seal.

dsc00233t.th.jpg

thats awesome, what do you use to cut them out? and where do you get the paper from?

SteveL Mentor

SteveL

Posted
Posted
I always make my own gaskets. A roll of gasket paper costs $8 and getting genuine stuff is way too expensive and too far for me to drive and I believe my handmade gaskets are better anyway. See picture below for the front main seal gasket. It's .8mm jointing paper. Use with gasket sealer and you have perfect seal.

That's admirable and in 95% of cases probably perfectly fine, but in this case the thickness of the gasket is important because it influences the end float of the countershaft of these gearboxes. There's a procedure for selecting the correct countershaft shim, which relies on the thickness of the gasket (amongst other things).

Also the genuine gasket has extra sealer pre-bonded to the faces (you can see it as thick 'lines' running around the surface of the gasket). You need to add the cost of your sealer to the cost of your gasket paper.

I'm not criticizing you - I make my own gaskets sometimes as well - I'm just saying that in this case at least it's not as clear cut as you make out.

liampire Contributor

liampire

Posted
  • Author
Posted
thats awesome, what do you use to cut them out? and where do you get the paper from?

Supercheap auto, it's $8. Put of few dabs of super glue to the part and then stick the paper to it so it doesn't move around. Supercheap also sells a set of scalpals for $4 which is super sharp so you can cut it properly. Get some gasket sealer which is $14 and you are good to go. .8mm gasket paper is fine as it does compress once the part is all bolted in. Don't listen to what ppl say on these forums about it having to be the right size and this and that cos i've used this on plenty of cars and have stopped leaks good and proper and been on over a year and is perfect. People have made gaskets from kellogs cornflakes boxes and made a perfect seal. Mechanical stuff is not what it seems to be talked up to be

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Kinkstaah
      Mistakes were made, my R34 Story

      By Kinkstaah · Posted

      Yuck. But it's kinda the same principle, moving timing around to make car run bad but sound good.... I went for a more spirited tuning drive to iron out a few things. Car no longer stalls, and it loved to dip RPM low when you clutch in. After tuning this (and the 4-5 tables that HPTuners/LS1 OEM ECU wants for idle air correction) it's now behaving somewhat normal. All expected because there's a new TB, new Intake manifold and that new TB which is 102mm vs 78... has an entirely different IAC passage which is smaller because ????? Unfortunately at this point I went to make further fine tuning changes to avoid it flaring up, you know... _tuning_ the HPTuners dongle died. Well to be more accurate - The USB cable died in a fashion that anyone who has ever charged a phone will recognize. After the app demanding I resync it 50 or so times (which all 'succeeded' but all failed) the device does not want to sync and I've logged a ticket with support to see if it's fixable. US Support said it was a 'storage issue' but after removing the SD card inside it and formatting it/fixing it the issue does persist. Unfortunately usually the fix is "Turn in your old dongle and pay $700 for the upgraded one" it's cheaper because I get some free licence credits I unfortunately don't need. However I'm 10 minutes down the road from HP Tuners AUS/VCM so at least I won't need to post it, and logged a new ticket for support over here. Definitely drives different. My SOTP dyno believes it's probably making 310-320kw instead of the 280 before.  It scrambles for traction a little now whereas it previously different. It drives like a bigger cam car up top even though the cam is smaller, likely due to the cam not being advanced 6 degrees. The timing is deliberately low and the fuel is very rich so who knows if this will improve on the dyno. It may, imperceptably. Also funny is removing the pineapples definitely makes the car squat more and axle tramp less. So this behavior of having more top end, squatting more, and scrabbling for traction more makes me think = more power. But I could have just been sitting on the threshold of that kind of behavior before. Time will tell if my butt dyno is calibrated right. I need the exhaust leaks fixed before dyno tune for obvious AFR related reasons - I repositioned the pipes but I'm not confident it's fully sealed even if it is better. At least the car does drive around while I cannot tweak/tune it for now. And I have aircon again. medium success!
    • GTSBoy
      I need more than help to finish my R33

      By GTSBoy · Posted

      Don't use that manifold. Please don't use that manifold. Sunk cost fallacy is not worth the later pain. None of these will be relevant to the change that will come from the different turbo and manifold. As in, the effect of the exhaust will be nil, regardless of what else is changed. And all the cam and fuel system stuff is not changing either way, so has no effect. The turbo and manifold (and to a small extent the wastegate)....big change.
    • marni
      I need more than help to finish my R33

      By marni · Posted

      Just wanted to say thank you for your input   my man (lead mechanic by trade) and I have done a heap of work as you can imagine just to make the hot side work with the dump pipe, stupid massive intake on turbo, trying to get the waste gate on was not fun.  I’m kinda getting to the point where I don’t know if I try and make this work and not throw all this cash and time away or do I scrap the lot and start again? the Apexi I’ve got was tuned for a few slight differences:   Tomei pon cams (mine are stock neo) Turbo smart 38mm external waste gate (mines 45mm replumbed) with stainless screamer pipe  3inch turbo back exhaust with high flow cat Sard 800cc top feed injectors Sard adjustable fuel pressure reg    
    • joshuaho96
      My BMW 335i

      By joshuaho96 · Posted

      Out here E90s are the cheapest way into a sporty-ish car because everyone knows just how expensive the repairs can get. 8-10k USD for an automatic 335i. 
    • cobo_11
      My BMW 335i

      By cobo_11 · Posted

      Noted. Have noticed BMW are more 'high maintenance' for sure. They've attracted my attention as I think the used car prices seem reasonable vs other options, and the extra quality overall vs a commodore / camry / corolla or similar of the same vintage is appealing, especially the interior, and they are more on the sporty side whereas the others mentioned can be more cruising or economical A-to-B only.
×
×
  • Create New...