Stuck in Malawi with a H55F 5th gear trouble.. ideas? (1 Viewer)

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Joined
Feb 20, 2018
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Location
The Netherlands
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www.polarsteps.com
I've bought a reconditioned H55f gearbox from a reputable vendor in South Africa and had it installed in the car yesterday here in Malawi by a skilled European mechanic based here. Normally I would return to the vendor, but going back to the vendor is a bit tricky (distance, visas and we're in a schedule driving back to Europe), so would love to pick all your brains. The following is happening:

Low speed driving (up to 30-40km/h): 1-5 shift perfectly up and down.
Higher speeds driving (40km/h +): 1-4 shift perfectly up and down. 5 is hard to get into. Once it's been in 5th, it's not possible to shift back down without stopping the car and playing around with the clutch & shift.

The blue plastic ring and black ring under it are in place in the shifter tunnel. The white nylon cup is on the shifter end. The two rivets on which the shifter hinges are in good shape.

During removal of the old gearbox, the flywheel bearing was pulled out by accident (very tight fit around the pilot shaft of the old gearbox). The old bearing was placed back into the flywheel and the new gearbox installed (te bearing fits correctly around the new gearbox pilot shaft).

We have pulled the box out again. The bearing feels ok, but as a precaution we're going to replace the bearing and try to install the selector housing of the old gearbox which was shifting fine but had internal bearing troubles.

Anybody have an idea what could cause this erratic behavior? All tips and ideas are welcome.

It's a 1996 hzj75 1hz & H55f. Clutch plates in good order, replaced 50k Kms back. Fresh oil in the gearbox Castrol Axle EPX90 GL-5
 
Check the bolt and nut and alignment of the shifter lever on the top of the 5th gear housing and make sure
it isn’t stripped or fallen out. Happened to me.
 
How would this affect only 5th? Shouldn't this trouble in all gears? And why would it be speed dependent?
Sounds more like a clutch adjustment issue at the pushrod between the pedal and master
 
There is no real adjustment possible on this lever right? The bolt goes all the way through I think. How did you solve it? Weld it in place?
Check the bolt and nut and alignment of the shifter lever on the top of the 5th gear housing and make sure
it isn’t stripped or fallen out. Happened to me.
 
Had a forum search on the GL4 vs GL5, consensus seems to be that Toyota recommends either and probably know these boxes best:


Personally I'd change that oil to a gl4 when you get the chance.
 
There is no real adjustment possible on this lever right? The bolt goes all the way through I think. How did you solve it? Weld it in place?
I had the bolt fall out completely, I had rebuilt t- case and I guess didn’t tighten it properly. But
the result was no 5th gear. It’s just hard to see on top of the case and I couldn’t see it from under the truck.
 
I had the bolt fall out completely, I had rebuilt t- case and I guess didn’t tighten it properly. But
the result was no 5th gear. It’s just hard to see on top of the case and I couldn’t see it from under the truck.

I have a 5th and it shifts perfectly into 5th at slower speeds.
It just gets weird above 40km/h. Then it's hard to engage 5th and after it's been in 5th it won't engage 1-4 anymore without stopping the car...
 
As mentioned earlier, have you checked clutch?

Was the clutch removed?
If yes, could the disc plate be installed reversed?
Could clutch fork pivot be off ball, or retaining clip damaged?
Is pilot bearing set at correct depth?
Has the clutch adjustment been checked at all 3 points? Slave, pedal, push rod
If you remove the inspection cover and operate clutch, is the disc travel adequate?
Put transfer case in neutral, start engine and see if shifting works. Have someone watch and listen from under also.

Good luck.
 
So we've taken the box out again.... The selector cover of the new box seem to be working fine. But operating the 5th gear lever on the outside of the box, with the cover off, is very stiff. Especially to disengage it from 5th. The lever on old box flips very smoothly in and out of 5th.

Ideas? What would be the next steps you'd take?
 
Pictures of where you’re at might help. @orangefj45 would be the troubleshooting expert.
I’m thinking the upper shifter fork for 1-4 but pure speculation on my part. I hope Georg sees this.
The stiffness of the shifter might be indexing of the 5th gear under the cover. I don’t have access right
now to my computer. Be back
 
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With the selector cover off, manually flipping it (using the encircled lever) into 5th goes stiff, especially flipping it out. On the old box this goes very easily.

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Selector covers of the old and new box look fine..
 
There is a couple of bronze synchro sliders, when I had my new transmission shipped today me
Georg had me realign one as it wouldn’t shift. It was a wooden dowel and hammer repair.
Honestly, I’m just not knowledgeable enough to offer real help
 
There is a ball bearing within the 5th gear housing that selects 5th using a detent. Mine fell out when I
Pulled it apart but I saw it and put it back in. It is directly below that upper plunger that cycles the lever.
Mirrors the upper plunger within the case. I’m wondering if the plunger below doesn’t have the detent
So it’s sliding beyond limits either one way or the other.
Is that a fresh transfer case rebuild as well?

MT-37 in the PDF manual
 
So how is it working out? Been a couple of days.
 
Weve unfortunaly concluded with the supplier that there's an issue in the 5th gear in the box itself. Working out a solution with the supplier. They're probably sending out a new reconditioned box.
Thanks for all the tips people.
 
Glad to hear you are getting a solution. Hard to help from so far away.
7200 NM from here to Lilongwe via great circle route.
 

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