Rough shift to reverse

[mailman221]

Being a new Elan owner, I don't know if this is normal or not. All gears shift perfectly and smooth and clutch travel seems to be correct. But when I want to shift into reverse, (standing still of course), sometimes it's as if it is kissing the gears. Not a grinding, but as if the clutch is not in all the way. All the rest of the gears work great.

Car has 7500 mi. Is this an Elan trait or is there something I can do? Not sure if I want to try adusting cables as I might destroy the great shifting in the other gears.

Any thoughts or ideas will be appreciated>

[Doug]

this is common in the Elan and in many cars for that matter.

reverse gear has no synchro on it -- thus you will not get smooth engagement all the time and that's how you can crunch or grind the gear more easily.

I suggest you do the trick that is almost guaranteed to make it work for you right every time:
--before shifting into reverse, momentarily and quickly move the shifter (with clutch depressed) into 3rd, and then into 4th, and then into reverse. This will get the gears 'better lined up' so that reverse will properly go into place. after you do this a few times it will become a pattern that you will not think about and you can do in a matter of about 1 second. I showed this trick to the new owner of my car when I sold it and I hope he is doing this so as not to grind the gear

also never be rolling forward at all or you will likely crunch it in place

[mailman221]

Thank you for your suggestion, Doug. I knew there had to be a simple solution.

[Enright]

On a similar note (in that it also concerns shifting into reverse), I've noticed a problem with my Elan ever since I bought it in that it often has a nasty habit of jumping back out of reverse again.

I have an Isuzuperformance short shift selector box fitted, which reduces the gear lever throw by 50% in each direction, and I recently fitted AB cables thinking that they would cure the issue. They didn't. In fact it seems to have got worse.

Every other gear selects perfectly and I never get any jumping issues, so I don't think it's cable adjustment that's at fault. Reverse just doesn't feel as though it "notches in" and locates properly. It always feels as though it's just on the edge and is likely to pop out again, which it frequently does. Selecting a few other gears first and then having another try helps, but only 50% of the time.

Is there a simple solution for this too?

[Candles]

I seem to recall (I'd have to get my hands dirty or read the manual to check) that one of the screw-in plugs on the selector housing has a sprung ball bearing that provides clickyness into reverse. The gearbox selectors have similar arrangements as well. Now I'm not suggesting you fiddle with it, but all these are accessible from outside the gearbox without dismantling anything and a gearbox specialist could easily replace the balls and springs which might help.

In the reconditioning specifications, there are minimum lengths for the springs which is presumably to do with how well it clicks into gear.

Candles.

[Ekapol]

I showed this trick to the new owner of my car when I sold it and I hope he is doing this so as not to grind the gear

Of course Doug. I follow your words by the letters. Do I have Isuzu shift cable at the moment or Lotus original?

[Doug]

yo E,

you've got Lotus shifter and selector box at each end with both Isuzu cables in the middle . . .

[Enright]

I seem to recall (I'd have to get my hands dirty or read the manual to check) that one of the screw-in plugs on the selector housing has a sprung ball bearing that provides clickyness into reverse. The gearbox selectors have similar arrangements as well. Now I'm not suggesting you fiddle with it, but all these are accessible from outside the gearbox without dismantling anything and a gearbox specialist could easily replace the balls and springs which might help.

In the reconditioning specifications, there are minimum lengths for the springs which is presumably to do with how well it clicks into gear.

Candles.

That makes a lot of sense - I think you've hit upon something there.
I've never noticed anything on the gearbox casing, but it sounds very plausible, and if you could point me in the direction of a section and page number in one of the manuals, I'd be keen to check it out. Thanks.

[Candles]

Service manual, section FF, page 14, paragraph 8 = Reverse detent.
Para 7 on the previous page refers to the detents for the forward gears.

That's better for technical language as well. I quite liked 'clickyness' but I'm guessing detent is nearer the mark!