Gav's World : My Cars : R5GTTurbo Gearbox Change

My Renault 5 GT Turbo - Gearbox Change

So, why the change? Well, Thursday 4th May 2000, something inside my gearbox decided that it wanted a holiday outside the box. With the casing of the box being in the way, whatever it was just punched several cracks in the housing - obviously pi$$ed off because it couldn't get out.

So, Sunday 21st May was time to start dismantling the car (been too busy lately to start earlier).

Day 1 - Saturday 20/5/2000

First of all, prepare a space to work.
My garage is normally full of crap, so this took a while the day before I started.

This is absolutely essential: spray your nuts the day before - fnarr fnarr!

Day 2 - Sunday 21/5/2000

Remove the bodywork, i.e. the bumper and bonnet.

Some bit's removed: radiator, inter-cooler, anti-percolation fan, air filter,strut brace.

All of a sudden, the engine is out - where is it?

There it is!

And this is the problem. Look closely and you'll see several cracks around the differential housing
(click picture for a close up).

Now remove the gearbox from the engine.

End of day 2, time for bed!

Day 3 - Monday 22/5/2000

The next day comes and the replacement gearbox is bolted to the engine.

Here is the other side - engine and gearbox hoisted up ready for the car.

Car in position - reassemble

Well, at this point I should tell you of a spot of misfortune - this replacement gearbox is knackered. When it was on the ground, I couldn't get it into any gear - I thought, "Maybe I've just not got enough leverage, I'll wait until the lever is connected."

So they were lowered into the engine bay, mounts connected and then the gear selector bolted to the gearbox - still won't go into gear, well 5th will but that's no use. Even in neutral, the gearbox appears to be stuck in gear or something. Basically I lowered the car onto it's wheels and tried to roll it out of the garage but it would not budge.

The only real explanation I could come up with is that something has got itself inside the gearbox when it was lying around in the garage where I got it from (friend of a friend).

I have since ordered another box from elsewhere which arrived today - Thursday 25th. It shall be fitted on Saturday (weather permitting).

As a note, this is now 3 weeks that my car has been off the road and it's started to get me down. I now take 1.5 hours to get to work and 2 hours to get home on the bus - used to travel in 45 minutes each way.

The sage continues...

Day 4 - Saturday 27/5/2000

The new gearbox was fitted rather quickly. I had to wait for the rain to stop before I could begin though.

Day 5 - Sunday 28/5/2000

All Done!!! What a mess I have left the place in!

Well, at last my car is back on the road. I have just been for a 30 minute drive to remember what the car feels and sounds like - even had the stereo off.

I'm a happy chappie now - well almost: I need to get the camber angles set up again as they are out due to the camber adjustment bolts being removed and not quite fitted in the same position. Because of that the car doesn't handle like it should (not enough rubber on the ground).

This latest gearbox also turned out to be stuck in gear, so I phoned the place I got it from for advice. Apparently this is quite normal when these boxes are left to dry out. The advise was to remove the 5th gear end cap (It looked like it was stuck in 5th, you see, even though 1st, 2nd and reverse could be selected) and have a look. Sure enough, 5th was engaged and as if by magic, I could select all 6 gears (after disengaging 5th). I put the end cap back on and it jumped into 5th again. I realised at this point that the gearbox had been damaged during transit as it had a dent in the corner of the end cap which was forcing the 5th selector fork inwards. So, I swapped that one with my original one and all was well. This is probably the case with the other gearbox that I got hold of. Below is a picture of the offending end cap.

And this is what is under the 5th gear end cap (rust appeared overnight with the rain).

When I man-handled my old box to remove the end cap, a bit of a selector fork fell out of it. This is most likely the thing that tried to escape through the wall of the gearbox and caused all that damage.