H55F (60 series) gearbox stuck in reverse

[dumbdunce]

I had the gearbox out of a FJ62 to change the clutch and rebuild the transfer. I stood the gearbox on its nose to do the transfer surgery (this was the mistake I think), and didn't realised till the box was back in the truck that it was stuck in reverse - the shifter is still in the 'neutral' position. will move side-side but not back-forward.

I found on the interweb a couple of instances of this happening to H55F transmission while installed and on a steep downhill, but no discussion of any fixes. any ideas?

thanks

Brian (not looking forward to dropping that box again!)

[roscoFJ73]

Brian is it possible to pull the top cover off while the box is installed and go in through the top?
Lots of photos in the Gregories manual that may give some idea.

[dumbdunce]

yes, it might be. truck has a 2" body lift so there is a bit of space to play with. might have to pull the seats and carpet to lift off the floor cover plate but that's still easier than dropping the gearbox for a second time.

first I'll try and have a dig through the hole for the reverse light switch/reverse rail detent to see if I can't pull the reverse selector back to neutral.

thanks for the idea.

[dumbdunce]

solved!

I had to build a special tool to pull the reverse light switch and then was able to lever the reverse shift rail back through the reverse light switch hole


thanks to anyone who at least thought about it!

[bj on roids]

I only just saw this and was coming to offer you $100 for it :( pulling the top cover off and realigning the rails will do it!

[dumbdunce]

pft as if I'd take 100 for a 5 speed

didn't need to pull the top cover, just the reverse light switch. whole fix took about 20 mins including building the socket to pull out the reverse light switch, plus 20 minutes to put the seats and carpet back in. pulling the top cover would have sucked without removing the trans from the vehicle again.



just got back from delivering this truck back to its owner at Bega - drove back in my little brown datsun. FJ62: 22l/100km. 200B: 7.3l/100km - 1/3 the fuel for half the weight and half the engine capacity, at higher speed. go the datto!

[Monty]

So the Dato is still going after Chris had it thats impressive

[dumbdunce]

yeah and he can't have driven it very hard, otherwise it would have gone over 8 - 9l/100k.

I gave it a real caining along the road from bega to cooma though. what a tops road!

[Punchy]

I'd like to see the datto tow a 3 tonne tralier and get close to the same economics

[dumbdunce]

it wouldn't. not least of all because it has all 6 cylinder (2.4 or 3.0 skyline) running gear, very tall gearbox and diff ratios for a little 2 litre - it'd smoke the clutch just trying to get off the mark. neither would that cruiser, it was flat out most of the time just maintaining 100 - 110km/h, and towing that sort of weight behind a 3F powered 60 you could watch the fuel gauge fall in real time.

so what's my point? as Homer said to the postal worker, 'I don't knoooowww!!'