Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Gear Shift Rattle

Ahhhh, Gwyn. I hate to be the messenger of doom but some years ago I had this exact same issue with an LT77 installed in my MGB V8 conversion. Changed all the bushes in the remote to no avail, tried fresh oil in the gearbox too, even some fancy additive. Still buzzy rattle in 3rd.

Ended up rebuilding the gearbox as one of the intermediate bearings had too much play. As I did everything myself it only cost me about £20 in parts but took hours and hours to get to.

I hope you can solve yours much more easily than I did

Sorry

I think you need to establish which gearbox you have. At the age of your car I would expect an R380 rather than an LT77, but with MMC you never know........

Easy to identify , is reverse gear underneath 5th ? If so you have an R380, if it is alongside 1st then you have an LT77.

Once you have this data then you can hone in on the correct procedures and information.

I am afraid that Gary may be correct , the troubles solved by the cup and the rubber/PU bushes are difficulty in getting gears rather than a buzz/rattle. I do hope the easy fixes cure it for you. If not then you will need to remove the box from the car and either dismantle it , or get it done by a specialist (of which there are many)

The cup....UKC3159 part number (embedded in my memory!). Rarer than fresh dinosaur poo!
I managed to find one and it has reinforced lugs welded to the bracket. I cobbled a temporary fix on the original about 6 years ago and it took me until last year to find a new one! I’ll be fitting it soon. I have the R380 box. Bushes are good and gearchanges were better with the cobbled repair. I spray some light grease down the top annually help the movement.

Have to concur with Grumpy2 and MOG 615: If it only happens in third gear then it seems highly unlikely that it is associated with all the bits that are common to gear lever and gear selection in general, but as they are relatively easy to get at, (compared to gearbox extraction) nothing lost in checking them out.

If reverse is to the left and forward it is a LT77 gearbox. If to the right and back it is a R380 box.

Had a LT 77 gearbox for 18 years in my +8 ,never had an unwanted noise from it.

Oh dear! But thanks to all for your experiences and advice.

So reverse gear is far right and under 5th making it the R380 gearbox then.

I will check the bushes and cup as that seems easy to do, but have to agree with all who suggest that if the problem is the bushes or cup, then it would surely affect all gears not just 3rd.

It is what it is - keep you posted!

Thanks again 👍

My cup was not fully broken and it only affected 3rd.

I have to say, when the noise first started, it didn’t even cross my mind that it was a gearbox issue per se.
It just didn’t seem that sort of noise - the rattle seemed to emanate from the shifter area, not from down inside the gearbox.
The only noise is the stick rattling. So I dunno, wishful thinking maybe but I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
Incidentally, I’m away at the moment so unable to check the bushes and cup, but when I do check I’ll post my findings.
Many thanks again all, much appreciate the help and advice. 👍

Hi Gwyn,

I've started a tread "gearlever touching the propshaft" in "Maintenance & Servicing".
There are photo's showing what to do to replace the bushes.
May be helpful.