Caesar the 1275 E - Diary of minor changes

[Vinay-RS]

Vinay! Your Clubby is already 99% there, so don't get despondent.
Have another set of eyes look at the linkage situation under the car.
Remove the pins from the selector and feel how the lever setup feels without being hooked up to the gearbox.
It may be something small that is not 100%

Thanks, Tim That's a lovely compliment of this car, but I don't know if it's quite that good.
I'm not sure who else could give me some useful feedback on the linkage system, but I'll give it a think and perhaps there's someone in the club who can quickly tell what is wrong. It may even be a user problem

It's a bit difficult to not feel bad though. Especially if people (who've not seen the car) immediately say that the issues a car is experiencing require full rebuilds of components, which would require the long term decommissioning of the car.

It's also sad because I don't know if the car will be good enough to drive with you guys to Hermanus and I was hoping it would be ready for that event.

I'll give you my two cents for what it's worth...

I think a clear head and some reality is all that's needed. If the gear change needed modifying to fit because it couldn't engage gears to begin with and the problem is now repeating, that is OBVIOUSLY the first place to look. A gearbox doesn't break overnight while no one is driving the car and it was fine before, during and after it was at NVS. They would have picked up if there was anything wrong. It seems the logical first step is to take the car back so the gear change can be inspected again. If further modification is required one has to ask yourself the question if it is the refurbished gear change mechanism itself that has something wrong with it (and take steps accordingly).

No one else has worked on the car (that part of it), so everyone's comments are mere speculation (even though we all like to think we know what we're talking about) and should be regarded as such. You can't say what's really wrong until you have looked...and there are people who have looked and will know where to continue looking.

Speaking as yet another outsider who hasn't seen those parts or driven the car, it seems to me the problem has an obvious (and potentially quite simple/cheap) solution.

Thanks, Abri. I'll definitely make time and take the car to Dennis and he can check things again.

Quick question Vinay. Was your original rod shift reconditioned during this process, or was it replaced with another item?
Clearly I don't have all the history behind this, so the more info we have the easier and quicker we can help you solve the issue.

No. Since I can't decommission the car, I got a rebuilt unit and had the existing one swapped out.

I think I was losing my mind, as over this past week of driving, the mechanism has become looser and now it slots into each gear with relative ease, although now there is a decent amount play when in neutral, 1st and 3rd. This is most probably normal since it's an old car (and also I've no clue what a perfect setup should feel like).

Next up, get the head gasket set, fix brakes and get the other stuff fixed.