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240 Dl Having Trouble Engaging Gears.


Yosemite_Sam

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Hey, my sister drives a 1991 240 dl with a manual transmission. Recently I found out that she has been having trouble engaging first, second, and reverse. The car has over 270,000 miles on it and it has been used to teach many people to drive stick. These facts lead me to believe that the transmission is going out. If this is the case, I was wondering how hard it is to replace it. I have never done anything on a car quite this in depth, but I am very mechanically inclined and I would have the help of my father who is also mechanically inclined. Does this sound like a dead transmission to you guys?

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You might try putting it in 4th first, then directly into 1st/reverse, this may ease the transition.

Make sure the fluid level is correct and that the fluid is in good order. Also make sure that the clutch isn't dragging; inspect the clutch release fork, sometimes they fail (bend) from rust or fractures. It's not an easy job to remove/replace the transmission, though I would DIY this as it could cost more than the car is worth at some shops, and plan on it taking a couple days.

A suitable replacement transmission might be impossible to find, so you might look into a DIY rebuild, but note the parts can run into the hundreds of dollars, and odds are you won't really know what all you need until you have it all apart.

Plan also on installing a new rear crank seal, and for the very real possibility you may need to take the flywheel to a machine shop and have it resurfaced. You may need some new exhaust gaskets, like for the down pipe to exhaust manifold. Look for a clutch kit that comes complete with a new throw out bearing and pilot bearing.

What exactly is a shifter dog?

The shifter dogs, which are block like items with a notch in the middle, reside on the shift rails/selector rods inside the trans to which the shifter forks are rigidly attached. Above this is the gear selector rod (which in turn is connected to the stick shift lever); this rod has a finger that basically points down at the dogs below engaging their notches and thus allowing the shifter to push the dogs around to in turn push the forks around to achieve the desired gear.

The gears on the main (input) shaft are not splined to the main shaft and thus can spin freely relative to that shaft . A dog clutch sits on the main shaft right next to the gear, and it is splined to the main shaft. The shifter fork is used to push the dog clutch up against the gear where it has teeth to engage the side of the gear and thus effectively lock it to the main shaft where it must now spin with the main shaft. The synchronizer is there to stop this from happening when the gear and the shaft are spinning at different speeds and then allow friction to synchronize the speeds.

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