SLROC Forum

Hi,

I have a 1986 V8 90 station wagon, but i'm having difficulty when going in reverse and taking up drive it moves As if you had kangaroo petrol! It also has  loud bangs and clunks.
You cant reverse with the engine at idle because of that.
Once you have got it in first gear it drives great and in all other gears too.
I've had the prop joints checked for play and none was felt.
The transfer box goes in and out of hi and low easy enough and it seems to work ok as well.
Do any of you's guys have any idea what could be wrong with it?
Or am i better just getting a recon box?

thanks for the help

From your description it sounds very much like either the teeth of the reverse idler, reverse gears on the leyshaft or mainshaft, are chipped or broken, or that the bearings on the reverse idler are shot. (so the 1/2nd syncro is ok if it drives forward ok and idles in neutral, the first reverse gear is part of the outer syncro here, and the clutch is ok if first does not kangaroo or crunch)
ordinarily the forward gears will work fine, when in neutral the reverse gears on the mainshaft and leyshaft line up (but have a gap), you then put it into reverse, which moves the idler gear into the teeth of the other two and bridges the gap.
if it *really* crunches here when the clutch is disengaged then you still have drive and the clutch is not working properly, if it slips into gear then starts making bangs and stalling when you engage the clutch, then the gear teeth are very suspect (also the idler bearings)

if you are up for it, it might not be such a bad job, but would need you to strip most of the gearbox down and replace the worn/broken pieces.
(this might be a job and a half! )

otherwise it might be better to get a recon unit.

cheers

Stephen

 

Have you checked your hand brake, you may have oil contamination and the brake drum is picking up the leading shoe.

Just a thought
Check your ball joint on top of rear axle when these are shot they can sound like gearbox problems when the axle kicks and transfers down the prop shaft
Billy

Sounds like the rear axle aframe ball joint could be away, the bottom shockie mounts are also bad for elongation and can
make the problem feel alot worse

colin

Another thing to check would be the gearbox output shaft where it goes into the xfer box.
I've had one where the splines were worn and going forward the gear jammed itself on BUT in reverse sounded like someone had left a box of spanners in there...

Bob