3rd gear crunch??????

[tay14]

I've noticed recently that when iam changing into to 3rd gear(up or down) that it isn't as smooth as the rest of the gears. It doesn't crunch or make a noise it just fells very nocthy. All the other gears are fine and it doesn't do it every time. After searching this forum for advise a changed the oil for Reno oil but still the same. There was no sign of anything in the old oil. All the linkage looks fine and the gear stick is nice and tight and it doesn't do it when the car is still.looking on here a lot of people say to change the clutch ratchet and fit a new cable would this help?the clutch is quite soft with a good biting point compared to the others I test drove. Any suggestions would be great as a don't want to be changing the box if I don't need to. Cheers Paul.

[16v_paddy]

Measure how far the clutch fork moves when the pedal is pressed, this will give you a good indication of how healthy the ratchet mechanism is, a brand new 1 will move it by 21mm & 17mm is how far 1 ready for replacement will move it.

But with it being just the 1 gear doing that, it's more likely to be in need of rebuilding as if it was something else at fault like the cable etc it'll be doing similar in other gears as well

[tay14]

Measure how far the clutch fork moves when the pedal is pressed, this will give you a good indication of how healthy the ratchet mechanism is, a brand new 1 will move it by 21mm & 17mm is how far 1 ready for replacement will move it.

But with it being just the 1 gear doing that, it's more likely to be in need of rebuilding as if it was something else at fault like the cable etc it'll be doing similar in other gears as well

I was thinking the same could be the synchro on 3rd as if you get the revs right it's fine.

[p4cks]

Rule of thumb is that if it's happening in third, it'll be the synchro. That's with any car.

[Wobba]

Agree with above. Synchromesh. Can leave it though, but you'll eventually need a gearbox rebuild.

[tay14]

Agree with above. Synchromesh. Can leave it though, but you'll eventually need a gearbox rebuild.

How much would a recon box cost?and where's the best place to buy one?the thing is iam not sure it would be worth my while fitting a new box and I could be better off striping the car. As it's due it's test some and it needs it's rear arches sorting.