Carrier gearshift binds in first gear

[Big D]

Gidday all,

Happy New Year.

I have a slightly unusual problem with my Australian carrier. When I first got the carrier I found the gear change to be quite stiff, especially going into 1st and 2nd. I put this down to the fact that the carrier was sitting around for a couple of years with very little use and the gear change linkages and bushes were probably dry and in need of lubricaton.

Over a period of time I worked on freeing this up with plenty of grease in different areas. It is 10 times better but I find it still find it quite stiff and binding going into 1st gear only.

The problem worsens when the vehicle is used over a period of a couple of hours and heats up. Often you will go into first gear but then when you want to change into second, it is so stiff that you have to 'smack' the gear lever upwards to get it out of the binding it is in, in first gear. Once into neutral it moves smoothly into second gear.

My thoughts are that the problem is in the two brass bushes that support the gearchange rod and ball joint that operates the floating lever on the transmission.

Here is a bit of a summary of what I have tried:

* It is not the transmission. I have removed the floating lever that operates the transmission from the gearchange rod and ball joint to isolate this and the stiffness is still there moving into the position of first gear. That is, with the gear lever back as far as it will go in that first gear position.

* I have checked the gear change rod where it goes through the bulkhead. This is free and is not binding on anything. In the first gear position, you can push this rod with your finger and there is sideways movement, so there is no tension on it.

* I have removed the gearchange rod and ball joint and the two brass bushes it is mounted on. I cleaned up the back bush and the arm that runs through it. This is nice and free sliding on the arm with the unit out. There is no binding on the arm in this sense and it doesn’t feel like there is excessive wear in the bush.

* I have not removed the front bush from the gearchange rod and ball joint (to do so I would have to split the welded portion where the universal joint is fitted). However, I have cleaned up the piece of the rod that runs through the bush and this bush also rides freely over the arm. There is no binding on the bush like this and it doesn’t feel like there is excessive wear on it.

* I refitted everything with plenty of grease on the gearchange rod and ball joint and in the bushes and the problem is still there. Again I checked the gear change rod on the driver's side of the universal joints and it is free with no tension on the rod. The tension seems to come in at the gearchange rod and ball joint end beyond where the universal joint is.

* I guess the only other thing I could have tried is to refit the gearchange rod and ball joint into the two mounted brass bushes but with the universal joint not connected.

My belief is that it is likely to be the alignment of the two bushes in the hull with respect to the gearchange rod and ball joint. I suspect that one of them (probably the front) is not quite mounted straight on the hull and creates binding when the lever is at the most rearward positin in first gear. How I would check this though has got me thinking.

I haven't seen the whole gearchange system out of a carrier so am really just working off a visualisation as to how it all operates.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Physically I am on the large size and working in that area is difficult enough as it is. I am not prepared to remove the engine to check this out!

Am I 'barking up the wrong tree' with my assessment of the likely cause?

There is not a lot of movement in the mounting holes on the brass bushes. One of my thoughts was simply to try upwards or downwards pressure on the front bush as I tightened that up again and just see if I could tighten it at a point where the gearchange rod was at its free-est.

Have I missed something with respect to the various angles this rod has to work on. Could the tension be coming from another point that only occurs when the gear lever is in that first position?

Note that first gear is the only one affected. It doesn't occur in top gear but theoretically top gear would be throwing the gearchange rod in the same direction as first (albeit) with a slight angular twist on the rod) .


Any ideas would be appreciated.

Cheers

Darryl