SteveG
Intake n exhaust almost done, suspension next :)
This is starting to get annoying/dangerous and here is what is happening, and has developed over the last few weeks:
1st and 5th gears often pop out of gear, both while travelling and when setting off. 3rd occasionally pops out, and 2nd has done so once. Also, there is a new secondary whirring noise that is most prominent when accelerating in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and rises/falls in sync with the engine, so it rises in 1st, then when I change to 2nd it drops and rises again, etc. Reverse has always been a pig to engage ('96 K11's on 81k now, I got it at 50k), and 1st has become similarly difficult sometimes, even with the clutch pedal pressed to the floor (or stopping bolt / whatever).
When the car came back from the garage after the MOT in early June, the point at which the clutch pedal presses down on anything was adjusted a fair bit lower, from maybe 1/4 way down to 1/2 way down or more, so whereas before there was only a tiny bit of free travel, now there is loads. It feels a bit slippy to when changing compared to how it was before.
If I lift off the clutch pedal completely in neutral, it sounds like it's bringing the clutch down on something because the engine revs/tone dips in the same way that it would do if you were just biting 1st with the handbrake/brakes on.
I thought the new whirring sound might be the gearbox oil being due for a change, so I drained and replaced the gear oil with 80w90. The drain plug had some silvery fine grindings, but only enough to dab a fingertip, assume that would be acceptable for the mileage/age. The old oil was yellowy brown, but fairly on the smokey brown end of things. There was a fair amount of oil and dirt on the bottom of the gearbox, so I've degreased it to mostly clean in case there is a leak (I didn't check the oil level before changing the gear oil).
Despite having a father and uncle that restore classic and modern cars (and even helping my dad on several builds as a boy), I am still a bit of a novice in the grand scheme of things. Last week I got a hydraulic jack, axle stands and creeper, and was glad to be able to get the gearstick out (the rusted to f*** exhaust looks like it would fall apart if I tried to unbolt it, so I worked around it) and degreased/inspected/regreased (Castrol general purpose) the ball joint and the ends of the plastic bushes on the linkage rod - I didn't realise the bushes popped out the end until I looked on the Internet after having reassembled everything, so I didn't grease inside there, just the outside ends.
The gear oil change and linkage regrease has had no effect on the secondary sound, nor the awkward reverse/1st engaging, and also absolutely no effect on the gears popping out.
I don't have an engine hoist, and the beams in my garage are already slightly sagging under the weight of the roof, so I doubt I could invest in a pulley to get the engine out. The Haynes manual was vague and inaccurate (I guess due to the K11 design variance between models/years) for the gearbox/gearstick stuff, so I only skimmed over the transmission overhaul section. Can the gearbox be removed from the bottom without taking the engine out?
Or, am I best off just taking it to my local garage and have them look at it, in terms of the difficulty of me attempting this myself for the first time, versus the potential small/medium cost of them fitting a replacement 2nd hand clutch, gearbox, etc.?
1st and 5th gears often pop out of gear, both while travelling and when setting off. 3rd occasionally pops out, and 2nd has done so once. Also, there is a new secondary whirring noise that is most prominent when accelerating in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, and rises/falls in sync with the engine, so it rises in 1st, then when I change to 2nd it drops and rises again, etc. Reverse has always been a pig to engage ('96 K11's on 81k now, I got it at 50k), and 1st has become similarly difficult sometimes, even with the clutch pedal pressed to the floor (or stopping bolt / whatever).
When the car came back from the garage after the MOT in early June, the point at which the clutch pedal presses down on anything was adjusted a fair bit lower, from maybe 1/4 way down to 1/2 way down or more, so whereas before there was only a tiny bit of free travel, now there is loads. It feels a bit slippy to when changing compared to how it was before.
If I lift off the clutch pedal completely in neutral, it sounds like it's bringing the clutch down on something because the engine revs/tone dips in the same way that it would do if you were just biting 1st with the handbrake/brakes on.
I thought the new whirring sound might be the gearbox oil being due for a change, so I drained and replaced the gear oil with 80w90. The drain plug had some silvery fine grindings, but only enough to dab a fingertip, assume that would be acceptable for the mileage/age. The old oil was yellowy brown, but fairly on the smokey brown end of things. There was a fair amount of oil and dirt on the bottom of the gearbox, so I've degreased it to mostly clean in case there is a leak (I didn't check the oil level before changing the gear oil).
Despite having a father and uncle that restore classic and modern cars (and even helping my dad on several builds as a boy), I am still a bit of a novice in the grand scheme of things. Last week I got a hydraulic jack, axle stands and creeper, and was glad to be able to get the gearstick out (the rusted to f*** exhaust looks like it would fall apart if I tried to unbolt it, so I worked around it) and degreased/inspected/regreased (Castrol general purpose) the ball joint and the ends of the plastic bushes on the linkage rod - I didn't realise the bushes popped out the end until I looked on the Internet after having reassembled everything, so I didn't grease inside there, just the outside ends.
The gear oil change and linkage regrease has had no effect on the secondary sound, nor the awkward reverse/1st engaging, and also absolutely no effect on the gears popping out.
I don't have an engine hoist, and the beams in my garage are already slightly sagging under the weight of the roof, so I doubt I could invest in a pulley to get the engine out. The Haynes manual was vague and inaccurate (I guess due to the K11 design variance between models/years) for the gearbox/gearstick stuff, so I only skimmed over the transmission overhaul section. Can the gearbox be removed from the bottom without taking the engine out?
Or, am I best off just taking it to my local garage and have them look at it, in terms of the difficulty of me attempting this myself for the first time, versus the potential small/medium cost of them fitting a replacement 2nd hand clutch, gearbox, etc.?
