About 18 months ago down shifting into 2nd gear started to become difficult (and noisy) unless I carefully matched engine and gear speeds. Double declutching helped for a short while, but not any more!
Changing up from 1st into 2nd is fine but changing down has become a bit of a nightmare. The sounds from the box make it seem as if my clutch or actuating mechanism is not functioning. However I replaced the slave cylinder a couple of years ago and it still feels good and the clutch seems to work well.
When I do manage to select 2nd gear I am still able to pull the gear lever slightly further back towards me and this causes a secondary grinding sound, almost as though I am moving the selector mechanism into another gear. I have read that the original rubber bushes on the remote can wear and was wondering if this could be the cause of my problem.
Although my Plus 8 has only covered some 33K miles, she is of 1989 vintage and the rubber bushes on the remote could easily have perished by now. I am going back to France at the end of the month and would therefore like to source the most likely correct parts before flying over. I am partially resigned to rebuilding the gearbox but I might be over reacting. Anyone experienced the same problem?
(Incidentally the new Quaife LSD has performed faultlessly since fitting it in 2013.)
Michael
