Tranny Poll

[COOL TOM]

JUST BOUGHT FROM PO WITH 1st GEAR OUT. IT JUST GRINDS WHEN YOU LET THE CLUTCH OUT, THOUGHT THE DRIVESHAFT SPLINES WERE STRIPPED THE WAY IT SOUNDED. SHIFT UP INTO 2ND GEAR AND IT TAKES OFF JUST FINE. ALSO REST OF GEARS ARE FINE. MY FIRST 1100 LOVE IT.
COULD ANYONE TELL ME IF DOGS WORE/ BROKE OFF. OR WILL I NEED A NEW GEAR?

[uk1.1s]

Grind away - another rambling answer

Tom,

Had the same with 5th gear and it drove me crazy trying to fix.

If it's the same thing your problem is that a gear on the end of one of the trasmission shafts is being pushed into the crankcases when it engages with the dogs of the adjacent gear to drive it.

What happened to me is that there is a circlip at the end of the shaft to stop the last gear moving too far along the shaft. This circlip (and the groove it fits into) had worn, letting the end gear (in my case 5th - in yours 1st) move too far across. The grinding noise was 5th gear hitting the inside of the crank case whilst still spinning.

Now someone here may have a better idea than me as to what moves on the mainshaft and layshaft in the transmission when you shift into first... to verify what I'm second guessing above... hopefully a kind soul will post

What was the most annoying thing is that on stripping down the motor this circlip had popped back into place, so I couldn't diagnose the problem. Got 36 miles from that rebuild.... 12miles from the second rebuild and then a lot of help from a friend who worked it out and replaced the circlip and wired the ends together to make sure it can't come off.

Your problem sounds exactly the same - as long as first gear selection involves the gears at one end of the shaft and is held on (like 5th) by a circlip. I did the "dremel" fix on the gear dogs too whilst I was in there. Be rude not to!!

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Tom,

Sounds like an XJ1100 I worked on a couple of years ago. Could only get it to move in 1st gear under IDLE and very slowly letting the clutch out. Put any throttle to it, and it chattered like a machine gun. The dogs were severely rounded off!

Read the Tranny DRemmel fix tech tips. 1st gear is a bit harder to grind, cause the dogs and slots are SOLID, not open, and they are flat surfaced/square cut instead of round. I'll be doing another fix on a basket case I'm working on, hope to get with a machinist friend to provide some better grinding/cutting... machining of the dogs and slots than using the Dremmel bits!
T.C.