1971 TC 2000-No 2nd gear

JohnDrake

New Member
Hi All:

My first P6 Rover. Series 2. US model. 4 speed manual. Can't get it into 2nd gear while driving. It does go nicely into 2nd while parked. Mechanic assumes the problem is the synchros. Bought the car 2 years ago and haven't been able to get it on the road since.

The prior owner (an unreliable type) said he replaced the tranny with a rebuilt and also gave me the old one. I've sourced yet another rebuilt from California and am trying to find a mechanic who'll replace the current one with it.

HOWEVER, I'm beginning to think that the issue might be that the prior install might have been done incorrectly, and either the linkage is off and/or the tranny isn't perfectly lined up. I've read various posts about how that is tricky.

The linkage might be bad regardless since the stick is very, very sloppy. I plan on replacing much of it if we pull the tranny. Mechanic thinks that the slop in the shift forced the prior drivers to search for 2nd and grind it into gear, leading to the current issue.

I don't know much about these cars (I'm a Range Rover guy with a LWB Classic) and would love to hear the experts here weigh in and advise.

Thanking you in advance.

Bob
 
Is it not going into second when changing 1-2 AND 3-2, or just 3-2?

Either way you need to sort all the linkage problems before diving in too deep.
 
Won't go into 2nd either way.

Does the tranny have to come out to access the linkage? I thought I saw a post somewhere that if one didn't tighten up a certain bolt upon re-install, there won't be second gear.
 
If the rear flange retaining nut is loose you can find it crunches into second gear, as though the synchro is faulty, but this normally happens on the 3-2 downshift beacuse you are moving from one selector rod to another, and the mainshaft moves forward, defeating the synchro.
The back of the gearbox has to be dropped to remove the remote to sort the lingage, but the box doesn't have to be removed completely.

PS If this is a very early series 2 with the series one gearlever linkage then the rear of the box doesn't have to be dropped to get at it.
 
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PS If this is a very early series 2 with the series one gearlever linkage then the rear of the box doesn't have to be dropped to get at it.
If it’s a NADA SII (super rare by the way!). Then it could easily be a very early one.
 
PS If this is a very early series 2 with the series one gearlever linkage then the rear of the box doesn't have to be dropped to get at it.

Sounds like linkage, or pedal adjustment.. Should be an easy fix either way, as long as the owner can get it up in the air..
 
Sounds like linkage, or pedal adjustment.. Should be an easy fix either way, as long as the owner can get it up in the air..

You can gain access to the selector finger bolt from the passenger side rubber plug in the transmission tunnel. There’s a bit in the manual on how to adjust it correctly.

There are a few things that can cause poor engagement quality in the early linkage.
1) The ‘acorn’ on the bottom of the gear lever can drop off making it more of a lucky dip.
You’ll have loads of free play around each gear position. If you remove the gear lever you’ll notice it’ll just be a small metal bit at the bottom. It should be an acorn sized hard rubber knob on the end (about 5/8” dia if memory serves).

2) There are rubber bushes where the steady bar is mounted to the tail of the gearbox. They can get oil soaked if the tail oil seal has failed and the. They fall apart causing the shift quality to suffer, normally that exhibits itself as insufficient travel to engage all gears.
One way to test this is to remove the center console and try selecting gears. If the whole shifter assembly moves backwards and forwards that’s where my money is.
3) The selector finger has somehow moved on its shaft, this is rare, and can be a bit of a pain to realign.
If you need the relevant pages uploaded let me know
 
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It's a late model Series II apparently. A Rover owner here in the US tells me that

"The 435 suffix serial numbers were the Series II Federal 2000 TCs. Yours is number 220 out of 238 serial numbers in this range. The total range of numbers was 43500001 through 435000238 with no actual cars assigned the numbers 027 through 040. So only 18 more Rovers were made for the North American market after yours until the 1980 SD1."
 
For an American SII sure, but the rest of the world had P6s until 1976 and those are what we refer to as a late SII car. The definitive answer for your gearbox is if it has a cast aluminium remote housing for the shifter mechanism (late) or a separate gear lever base with a steel angle bar going from the tail of the gearbox to the gear lever base between the prop shaft and the transmission tunnel above it (early).
 
If it is a late model car with the remote housing then the selector finger will not be adjustable, it is pinned in place.

Yours
Vern
 
I went through this once and did major work that turned out not to be needed! FIRST thing is to drop the propeller shaft from the gearbox output and check that the flange nut is tight. If its NOT tight, do it up to spec, and then check the 2nd selection.
 
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