Fitfth gear broken in T5 gearbox

[fablux]

Hi!

Just bought myself a Schwartz Chimaera 400 -96, beautiful car, the best thing I have ever done.
Drove it home to Gothenburg in Sweden, from Hull in England, with the help of a TVR-driverfriend.

Just outside of Gothenburg, the fifth gear broke.
In a regular overtaking, the gearbox whistled for a bit, followed by a metallic *klonk*, and then became neutral.
The other gears works fine, the reverse works etc.
I can engage the fifth gear, but it does not drive. It only works as a neutral.
What can this be?

Regards
Fabian

[carsy]

Gearbox out and rebuild time i'm affraid.

[Sardonicus]

Sounds like 5th gear has shifted off the shaft there is a mod to stop this happening appaertly

[450Nick]

Circlip has popped off 5th gear leaving it spinning on the shaft - a common problem with the T5 box. You'll need to take it out and sent it to CTS - they do a modification to prevent it happening again

Edited by 450Nick on Tuesday 12th March 13:11

[Englishman]

Yep, had exactly the same on my first Griff 500.

[fablux]

Wow.. Thanks for the quick answers!
Is it possible to drive it without damaging the car more, with the gearbox as it is now.

[450Nick]

Bit of a lottery really, the circlip will be in there somewhere so if it were to make its way up into the gears then your rebuild bill will increase somewhat... If it doesn't then you'll be fine...!

[Nosh]

450Nick said:

Bit of a lottery really, the circlip will be in there somewhere so if it were to make its way up into the gears then your rebuild bill will increase somewhat... If it doesn't then you'll be fine...!

Isn't that a really poor version of roulette, but with your car?

Like, "Blackpool Roulette" ???

Nosh.

[QBee]

I lost reverse gear last year. Box out, reverse gear ball bearing etc replaced, box back in was less than £500. So not hugely expensive.

[fablux]

Thanks for the help!
Will get it roadlegal i Sweden and registred, then I'll look it up.

/fabian

[ukkid35]

Would this help prevent 5th gears problems?

http://www.5speeds.com/t5.htm

[Sardonicus]

ukkid35 said:

Would this help prevent 5th gears problems?

http://www.5speeds.com/t5.htm

Yep thats a nice mod that stock plate is clearly a poor cheap n nasty design I think for the cost involved and the simplicity to fit it then becomes a no brainer IMO

[ukkid35]

If it weren't such a mare to remove the box, I'd do that mod tomorrow. Perhaps I'll just buy the parts and be patient. it's not like the Cerb exhaust manifolds will last forever.

[FastRich]

I heard they're worth more with the T4 Gearbox anyway....



Joking, good luck with the fix.

[bxlbaz]

Hi,

I hope you got the box sorted out before this years stunning summer in Sweden and got some miles under your belt. I think theres at least one other Chimaera around that Ive seen during my regular visits to Gothenburg, so you should be able to sort a TVR run-out

Barrie

[fablu]

So this exact same thing happened again, found my old post when googling around.
Probably the same issue.

Was cruising along in 5th gear and suddenly fifth gear wasnt engaged anymore, behaves like clutch is engaged.
No bang, no crunch, no noises just disappeared.

Mine's a standard 400, and it's not like I'm driving it hard.

Is there anything I can do for this not to happen again, specific upgrade kits or something?

edit: Everything went fine last time. Removed box, sent it to repair and got it back, installed it and all was good

Edited by fablu on Saturday 20th July 11:07

[phazed]

That shouldn't have happened a second time.

Who did the repair?

[LongBaz]

[fablu]

phazed said:

That shouldn't have happened a second time.

Who did the repair?

Don't want to point anyone out, but a guy doing gearboxes in southern Sweden, but I have no reason to believe he didn't do a proper job (well renowned and used to working on Lotus from what I know)

But as you say I would also expect it to last more than 6 years.

[phazed]

As far as I'm aware, the repair is supposed to be a permanent fix as the original method of securing fifth gear wasn't that clever. Apparently.