Shifting tower question

[Franchise_24]

I replaced the throw out bearing on my 28 Leatherback, and when I pulled the shifting tower off at the start of the job the car was in neutral. Nothing moved and the gears in the transmission box were not moved or touched. Tried to put the tower back in today, and I cannot get the forks to go on each of their collars or groves on the gears. Am I missing something or is there a trick? Gears are spread apart and I wanted to get some input before I ended up breaking something or doing something wrong.

Thanks,
Neal

 

[Franchise_24]

Put the gears in neutral and the lever in neutral. Your gears are in the wrong location. Something moved, whether you know it or not. They are not in neutral in the pic, in fact they are in reverse and no mans land.

Yeah that is strange, and if they did get moved I did not see it. Do you know what position the gears need to be in for neutral? Is there a picture or anything of what it should look like? You can push the gears together and spread them apart and as the picture shows they are spread as far apart as the can be.

Thanks,
Neal

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

Just put the tower in neutral and slide both gears forward an inch or so, then when you lower the cover you will see if the gears need to be moved slightly to engage the forks.

 

[Mike V. Florida]

Yeah that is strange, and if they did get moved I did not see it. Do you know what position the gears need to be in for neutral? Is there a picture or anything of what it should look like? You can push the gears together and spread them apart and as the picture shows they are spread as far apart as the can be.

Thanks,
Neal

The go pretty much in the middle.

This will help;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vmgZ4Hte7A

 

[Tom F OHIO]

The center gear will not slide forward. It stops right where it is at as shown in his picture. Can we move the gears with the crank in order for the center gear to move forward and slide back and forth like its suppose too?
Thanks,
Tom.....

 

[tbirdtbird]

yes, do whatever needs to be done to locate the sliders in the correct neutral position. You cannot harm anything

 

[Franchise_24]

yes, do whatever needs to be done to locate the sliders in the correct neutral position. You cannot harm anything

The car was in neutral when we took the tower off, I'm curious how could the gears have moved? We did pull the rear end.

Thanks!

 

[Big hammer]

Their called sliding gears, a little vibration and they will move

 

[Keith True]

The engine and trans are tilted back about 10 degrees,just the weight of the gears themselves will let them slide back like a glacier.When pulling the rear end the weight of the U-joint dropping down will turn the shaft,there is nothing keeping those gears from turning and sliding when the top is off.Just slide them around with your fingers until they are where you want them.If they hit another gear,turn that one too until they slide.Put the forks in the cover in neutral,then line the gears up to fit.There's nothing you can do in there with the cover off to hurt anything.

 

[Franchise_24]

Thanks to everyone for the info. We got it back on and everything lined up.

Neal

 

[Tom Wesenberg]

The engine and trans are tilted back about 10 degrees,just the weight of the gears themselves will let them slide back like a glacier.When pulling the rear end the weight of the U-joint dropping down will turn the shaft,there is nothing keeping those gears from turning and sliding when the top is off.Just slide them around with your fingers until they are where you want them.If they hit another gear,turn that one too until they slide.Put the forks in the cover in neutral,then line the gears up to fit.There's nothing you can do in there with the cover off to hurt anything.

I can thinks of two things.

Running the engine with the clutch engaged and slinging oil all over the place.

And even worse having the gears both slide into mesh, so the ****** is locked up, then trying to start the engine.

 

[Keith True]

You're right.I was going to write,with your fingers,but I get lazy after writing a few sentences.I looked at a coupe in the late 70's,the owner kept spinning the engine over from under the hood.When it fired off he shut it right down,but it was too late.The gears were OK,but his new LB interior took a pretty good hit.He said he was lucky,his new seat cushions were still on the bench.If his window had been open they might have gotten it too.He was so disgusted he was talking about selling it.

 

[tbirdtbird]

if the ****** is in 2 gears at once all manner of bad things can happen, including grenading the case when power is applied. Have seen it more than once. First time was on an ancient IH gas-starting diesel dozer. The owners kid was a wanna be mechanic and destroyed that thing