spellman@hplabsb.UUCP (Miles Spellman) (02/01/86)
A tip for owners of pre reverse gear synchromesh autos: After a couple of years of depressing the clutch and waiting for 5 seconds before engaging reverse gear in my 71 saab sonett to avoid the gears grinding I found out about the following method. If you start to engage one of the synchro'd forward gears just enough to touch the syncrhos this will stop the reverse gear shaft rotating and let you go into reverse immediately saving about four seconds each time and minimizing wear on those gears. This has been tested and works on old MG's too.
mberns@ut-ngp.UUCP (Mark Bernstein) (02/03/86)
This works on circa 1980 Volvos, too. They are notorious for being difficult to put in reverse directly (crunch, crunch). A quick flick of the gearshift into any forward gear first eliminates the problem. Mark Bernstein
2212msr@whuts.UUCP (ROBIN) (02/04/86)
> > This works on circa 1980 Volvos, too. They are notorious > for being difficult to put in reverse directly (crunch, crunch). > A quick flick of the gearshift into any forward gear first > eliminates the problem. > > Mark Bernstein Just as a point of reference, virtually all Volvo transmissions prior to 1976 (i.e. M40/41,M400/M410) were happier if you engaged 2nd prior to reverse. In fact, many of the older owner's manuals used to make a point of recommending this. Having owned (or currently owning) 9 Volvos of various models, I find that the newer transmissions, i.e. the one in my '85 245DL wagon, appear to be somewhat lighter and don't 'feel' as robust as the earlier ones, especially the M40/42 used on 164s starting in '69, 1800s starting in '71 and in 140 series starting in '72. Those transmissions were virtually indestructible.