petrolhead63 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 My TD5 manual had some work done by a garage soon before purchase none of which was particularly great! Steering box done was good news but to leave the steering wheel at 60 degrees was shoddy I have done this little task and others myself. Another item they did was to replace a plate of some kind on the gear selection, and i'm not sure it was done correctly? I beleive this took out a load of slop on the gate?? The gears are fine, indeed the syncro is spot on. However the gearstick sits in the wrong place in that it is not in line with the 3rd and 4th gear being about mid way beween the 1st/2nd on left and 3rd/4th in middle. This means a wiggle of the stick is needed and it does not naturally find 3rd/4th and can be a bit tricky and notchy. Does anybody know if there is an adjustment to centralise the stick and how this is reached/achieved?? I look forward to any responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andymach23 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 My TD5 manual had some work done by a garage soon before purchase none of which was particularly great! Steering box done was good news but to leave the steering wheel at 60 degrees was shoddy I have done this little task and others myself.Another item they did was to replace a plate of some kind on the gear selection, and i'm not sure it was done correctly? I beleive this took out a load of slop on the gate?? The gears are fine, indeed the syncro is spot on. However the gearstick sits in the wrong place in that it is not in line with the 3rd and 4th gear being about mid way beween the 1st/2nd on left and 3rd/4th in middle. This means a wiggle of the stick is needed and it does not naturally find 3rd/4th and can be a bit tricky and notchy. Does anybody know if there is an adjustment to centralise the stick and how this is reached/achieved?? I look forward to any responses. Sounds like they replaced the bias plate. I did mine to fix the symptoms you have and had to make sure the 3rd to 4th gate lined up ok before tightening up the bolts. There is a vertical notch that 2 bias springs work against to hold the correct position. This gate is the default position on the R380 box so must be spot on. If you look at the FAQ's on Ashcroft transmissions web site it gives more detail. It looks like they didn't line it up right. It's hard to imagine getting this wrong though. It's a pretty easy job. Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 What Andy said ^^^ almost certainly the bias plate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrolhead63 Posted April 29, 2008 Author Share Posted April 29, 2008 Thanks guys, yes easy I'm sure BUT so is getting the steering wheel straight after fitting a new sterring box! but this garage used by previous owner left it 60 degrees out........ Do I get to the plate from the top by removing the centre consol/gaiters etc?? Many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andymach23 Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 Thanks guys, yes easy I'm sure BUT so is getting the steering wheel straight after fitting a new sterring box! but this garage used by previous owner left it 60 degrees out........ Do I get to the plate from the top by removing the centre consol/gaiters etc?? Many thanks Yes, the centre console has to come out. If you get the RAVE CD it gives clear instructions. This is a straightforward job. One mistake I made was in raising the handbrake up to get the console out, I disconnected the handbrake from the ratchet. This ended up runing the spring for the handbrake button. Had to get a handbrake off ebay, only a tenner so just annoying. If you do it, raise the handbrake up but keep the ratchet engaged. You have to drill out rivets on this rubber seal above the gearbox. No big deal. I just put this back with self tappers. Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrolhead63 Posted May 16, 2008 Author Share Posted May 16, 2008 thanks andy, also knowing self tappers will do the job not rivets which is far better for future work! Coming up my list of jobs for this and the rest of the fleet so will be done soon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 You can try adjusting those springs on the top of the box using the method in the RAVE manual, but be aware that things may go a bit strange. I had a problem on 5th-4th and adjusted the springs as per the book. 5th-4th was ok, but 3rd had disappeared completely! Did more adjustments, found 3rd but lost 1st and 2nd. At one time I was in such a panic I was phoning around for prices to recondition the box. Kept adjusting and test driving until suddenly it all worked fine! I won't easily touch it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andymach23 Posted May 16, 2008 Share Posted May 16, 2008 You can try adjusting those springs on the top of the box using the method in the RAVE manual, but be aware that things may go a bit strange. I had a problem on 5th-4th and adjusted the springs as per the book. 5th-4th was ok, but 3rd had disappeared completely! Did more adjustments, found 3rd but lost 1st and 2nd. At one time I was in such a panic I was phoning around for prices to recondition the box. Kept adjusting and test driving until suddenly it all worked fine! I won't easily touch it again. That's interesting. I did mine by RAVE and made sure 3 -> 4 and 4 -> 3 was ok before tightening everything up at the bias plate. My change is ok except 3rd sometimes blocks when going up from 2nd. I contacted Ashcrofts about it and Mr Ashcroft suggested looking at the bias adjustment. If I try and hold the stick slightly to either side when going up to 3rd, it doesn't help so maybe I need fine adjustment. In any case, I would drive around a while with the bias plate and springs exposed so that you could play around with the adjustment rather than lash it all back together like I did. Cheers Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted May 18, 2008 Share Posted May 18, 2008 Trial and (lots of) error seems to be the way to adjust the springs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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