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September 29th, 2008

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Q & A: 79 MGB Pops Out of Third Gear

Thursday January 10th, 2008
Q & A, MGA, MGB, MGC, MG T-Type, Midget
John,
Recently finished a restoration of a 79 MGB in which I had the transmission out of the car. When driving to diagnose a blown head gasket before the restoration, I don't remember it ever popping out of gear but now it has a definite tendency to do so in third gear especially when downshifting into a stop light and occassionaly when accelerating in 3rd. This appears to be more prominent when first starting to drive it, becoming less frequent as the car is driven. Holding pressure to keep it in gear works but is not how I like to have my car operate. I don't have this problem in any of the other gears.
I'm not positive but suspect it had gear oil in the transmission when I got the car, I'm thinking I refilled with 30W oil (I see that you recommend 20/50W Castrol). Can you help with a diagnosis and recommendation?


Bruce
Bruce,

The most common cause of this problem is an overly tightly fitted gear lever boot. No kidding! To see if this is the cause, remove the four screws that hold the gear lever gaiter ring in place, remove the screw at the back... read more