GV notchy gear shifting

[cbfb]

I'm currently selling my shiny Grand Vitara to buy a bit of a weekend toy. A woman took it for a test drive yesterday and was whinging about the gear shifting. It is a bit notchy but it never bothered me, being my first 4wd and having high miles I figured that's just the way it is. If you are gentle with it and know the gearbox it's fine, but I notice most when I've been driving my Galant and come back to the Vitara that it is a bit tempremental going into gear, needs a bit of a wiggle to get it into gear sometimes.

Not wanting to put off buyers, I thought I'd see if I can improve things a bit so the first thing was changing the transfer case and gearbox oil. The stuff that came out wasn't too bad, however the gearbox drain plug magnet had quite a lot of gunk stuck to it, maybe about 5mm of crap. Transfer case wasn't as bad but still a fair bit.

Anyway the oil change made bugger all difference, took it for a 15min run up to 100kms and through all the gears several times, just as bad.

Next thing was to check clutch pedal free play, it's about 30mm whereas the service manual specifies 15-25mm. Could that be causing the problem? If so, I believe you can't adjust free play in these? What's the cure if that's the case?

Also read somewhere that bleeding the hydraulics / changing the fluid could help. Is this true, or am I barking up the wrong tree completely in blaming the clutch?

Any other ideas would be great.

[Big-AL]

i have used this stuff several times, sometimes it made a huge difference and sometimes it made none. i had a mitsubishi rvr 4wd which would hardly go into 2nd gear, ran this stuff in the gear box and felt like new, yet on a mazda famila it made no difference. so its a bit of a risk, but for $25ish its often worth a try.
http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Manual ... _Treatment

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/archiv ... -4469.html

[cbfb]

i have used this stuff several times, sometimes it made a huge difference and sometimes it made none. i had a mitsubishi rvr 4wd which would hardly go into 2nd gear, ran this stuff in the gear box and felt like new, yet on a mazda famila it made no difference. so its a bit of a risk, but for $25ish its often worth a try.
http://www.nulon.com.au/products/Manual ... _Treatment

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/archiv ... -4469.html

Don't usually go in for additives, however if you've had good results then I might give it a try.

It's only $19 from Supercheap:
http://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/online- ... escription

So no big deal if it doesn't work out, could be worth a go. Might be a tricky job getting the stuff into the gearbox mind you, used a suction gun for the oil but wouldn't work with this. Might see if I can get hold of a large syringe from somewhere.

Cheers.

[churchill]

Synchros might be worn, big job to replace them though. Clutch master or slave cylinder seals might be worn too. Is there any fluid leaking from either? Try big-al's trick and give the clutch a bleed, won't hurt.

[Big-AL]

yeah, i dont usually go for additives usually either, but i have had some good results from this stuff (and some 'no change' results too). It comes in a small toothpaste like container so you can usually just squeeze it out of the container into the gearbox through the oil filling hole.

[cbfb]

Thanks, will let you know how I get on.

Synchros might be worn, big job to replace them though. Clutch master or slave cylinder seals might be worn too. Is there any fluid leaking from either? Try big-al's trick and give the clutch a bleed, won't hurt.

It's doing it in all gears, would that be consistent with worn synchros? Yeah that is a big job, don't really want to have the gearbox out.

Will check the seals, I haven't noticed any leaks but will have a better look now you've mentioned it.

yeah, i dont usually go for additives usually either, but i have had some good results from this stuff (and some 'no change' results too). It comes in a small toothpaste like container so you can usually just squeeze it out of the container into the gearbox through the oil filling hole.

OK that sounds easy enough. Will give that a try first and if no luck with that I'll check the seals and bleed the system.

[churchill]

Synchros usually start in 1 or 2 gears, I've never had a gearbox with all synchros failed. This points more towards clutch not disengaging properly.

[cbfb]

Synchros usually start in 1 or 2 gears, I've never had a gearbox with all synchros failed. This points more towards clutch not disengaging properly.

Tentatively, thank f*#$ for that

Hope that's all it is, will see as soon as I get chance, might have to be the weekend now bit tricky working in these dark evenings

[churchill]

Any luck?