In photos like this, opening up the gearbox looks so orderly and meditative, but I’m still too nervous to crack open my Triumph’s transmission… and procrastinating as a result.
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Gearbox
In photos like this, opening up the gearbox looks so orderly and meditative, but I’m still too nervous to crack open my Triumph’s transmission… and procrastinating as a result.
0 replies on “Gearbox”
I’ve been told often that rebuilding a manual gearbox is easier than the engine. For some reason like you I worry.
Ahh… Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance…
Piece of cake! Just be orderly, take pictures, fill the case with oil when you are done. Otherwise ignorance is bliss. I blew up 1st, 2nd & reverse in 1977. Just dove in and replaced the broken pieces & synchros, washed everything and closed it up.
No worries! That’s a nice photo and it reminds me of watching my father blast through gearboxes between sessions. It only goes together one way… right? I would post a photo, but I’m the new guy here and don’t know how yet. Great site, thanks for sharing.
This reminded me of a passage from Paul Frere’s Starting Grid to Chequered Flag, where his modified Dauphine broke down on the 1956 Mille Miglia :
“The available equipment was extremely primitive and it was only after prodigious feats of equilibrium that the power unit was removed from the rear of the car, using jacks, levers and a lot of perseverance, for there was no lifting tackle in the workshop. Then, on the ground by the doorstep, the chief mechanic and two apprentices set about dismantling the box.
Despite the heat I broke out in a cold sweat when I saw him removing, one by one, gear wheels, ball bearings, ball races, distance pieces, pins, keys, lockwashers, and I know not what else, without appearing to take any note of the order in which they came out. Then, oh horror of horrors, the lot was thrown pell-mell into a tin containing some petrol. One did not have to look far to discover the origin of the noise in the box: a gear wheel had cracked radially and play had appeared in the ball race supporting a shaft. The only solution was to build up the shaft and to remove the gear wheel, which was unfortunately the fifth-speed wheel, and to finish our reconnaissance trip without exceeding sixty miles an hour, using only the four lower gears.
After having allowed himself a half-hour rest at lunch time) the mechanic replaced his glasses, readjusted his beret and began reassembling the box, scratching about for each part he required amongst the hundreds spread about on the bench. Carefully examining each one before putting it in, he did not make a single mistake and did not have to take apart any assembly which he had already done.”
I’m working on digitizing the book, sometime between messing with cars and reading about them.