Thanks Don - I spent a lot of time under the bus adjusting the linkage (with
the Bentley manual) - to the point where I'm pretty sure I figured that out.
I had my wife shift while I was under the bus watching how it moved in the
shifter box (my idea of the perfect date - she wasn't too thrilled about
this date, however). Everything seemed copacetic. Seems to go into all the
gears without hanging up - but when I drive it - it pops out of second gear,
so I was wondering whether there's a sure fire way to test whether I've got
the linkage wrong - or whether there's truly something wrong with the
tranny.

Mark

On 10/17/05, Don Williams <williams@fire.biol.wwu.edu> wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
>
> My experience is that linkage is enormously important and that it is
> usually the linkage, and wrong adjustment makes you think it is the
> transmission. At least you should work on that first since it only gets
> you dirty and angry and doesn't directly cost you money. The guides to
> the gears are on the upper part of the box that is accessed under the
> spare
> tire. You can adjust the shifter by a little allen screw on the shift so
> that the shifting mechanism in that box is pushed up to be influenced by
> those guides. Then when you push down the shift to go into reverse, you
> are bypassing those guides.
> The next problem is often the rod that goes back to the tranny, and the
> compression ring that allows the lateral movement of the shifter to
> displace the vertical movement on the rod that goes into the tranny. You
> just have to play around with it (it is frustrating). Basically, a tiny
> adjustment on that ring influences whether or not a horizontal movement of
> the gear translate into engaging the gears properly. For my problem, my 85
> Westy would not go into first gear, for love or money, unless i pushed
> down the shifter and bypassed the guide in that box. I thought my tranny
> was screwed up, but after dinking with it for several hours, I could see
> that if I rotated the shaft in the correct direction, I could get the
> beast
> in first without depressing the shift because I had increased the distance
> that the shift rod tranveled without so that I did not need to depress the
> shifter to get enough distance to go into first gear. Does that make any
> sense whatsoever??
> Call me if it still seems weird. (360-650-3641)
> Don
>
>
>
> From: Mark Brush <mbrush@GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: 1990 Westy - do 3 transmissions have same problem?
> I haven't dropped the shifter box yet. I've adjusted the shifter rod so
> tha=
> t
> the lower part of the stickshift is in the right place. It doesn't seem
> lik=
> e
> the stickshift hits anything in the box when in second gear.
> With the last transmission I had, I wanted to check to see whether it was
> the transmission, or the linkage. So I un-hooked the linkage, crawled
> under
> the bus, and manually shifted the transmission into second. I started her
> up, and let off on the clutch, and nothing happened - so I figured I had a
> bad transmission (all the other gears engaged). Is this the best way to
> check whether the problem is the trans or the linkage?
>
>