Old-Nail, I'm sure you don't need telling from me, but I fear you'll regret selling once it's gone, so think about it very carefully. If you do come to put it up for sale, I'm sure a fair few I2F'ers will be knocking on your door

Once a gearbox has been rewound once, and the syncro ring, or whatever it is, has been peened properly, there's far less chance of it happening again than there is with a box which has previously given no trouble.

i.e. A box that has previously unwound will be more reliable than one of similar vintage that has so far been perfect.

Of course I suspect a rebuilt box dyane box will be properly peened as well.

And really sorry to hear you might have to sell it.

+1

I know I'll regret selling as I've done it before and regretted it, but the sale would be for the car's benefit and not my own. Last time this happened I had a 1954 Standard Vanguard which was a beautiful old car, but it always stood out in the weather and I thought it deserved better - so I sold it to someone with a garage.

Then I had a 1970 BSA 650 lightning in pristine condition, but we moved into an apartment where the bike would be left outside to the mercies of the weather, neighbourhood kids, and light fingered shell-suited bastards in transit vans... again it was sold.

This time I envisage a move to a smaller, possibly terraced house with only on street parking. Can you imagine that these days? The car would be scrap metal within a week or two. If the sale happens it will be for the car's sake not mine, as my circumstances reduce I just have to shed those things that deserve to be treated better. It might not happen yet who knows, but it aint looking good. Such is life.

The rebuilt Dyane gearbox that I have has already been peened well, and was fitted with new bearings too I believe so I'm happy to put that in should I be unable to fix this one 'in situ'. In fact I'd prefer it to be fitted as the longer Dyane top gear, and heavy flywheel that I have already put in would make a better cruiser for those long motorway trips. The engine will easily pull the higher top, as it revs out really well.

Time will tell, I'll keep you updated.

I've not attempted the gearbox fix yet as I've been er... missing for a few days.

It all came about when the Pope came over to Britain, and I thought as a sort of reciprocal arrangement it might be nice for Italy to host the Old-nail for a while. So as fellow Boltonian Peter Kay would say " I Booked it, packed it, fecked off"



I have to admit to being a lover of all things Italian, so a stay on lake Garda was just the ticket. Beautiful country that Ee-talie, although the hotel was a bit (no a lot actually) pricey at 650 euro per night it was stunning, it was built into a mountain top like something from a Bond film.





We were the only Brits there, everyone else was German, and as I found out later the place was a regular haunt of German movie stars... as if I'd know any! The place was relaxed and nicely un-crowded, (well it would be at those prices I suppose) but perfect for a few days relaxation.


Above: German film star? Or just the Old-Nail in a 'wot I did on my hol's' pic.


How's this for a view from your hotel room?

We reluctantly returned to Manchester this morning, and the contrast between the warm pastel shades of the Italian villas, and the derelict red brick industrial buildings sprouting trees from their very fabric couldn't have been starker.

<Sighs> Well, back to reality.... now to sort that bloody gearbox!

Nice of you to let us know how the other half live.
Not jealous.
Honest.

It's how the other half lives alright, but I'm firmly in the half that's left I'm afraid. I just do impulsive things now and again, and it was my honeymoon after all! That place was scary, though, in the restaurant at breakfast ordinary single pots of yoghourt like you might get from Aldi for 30p were eight euro's each ffs, a single toasted ham sandwich was 19 Euro.

Ok. Onward - there's no time like the present I suppose so I've made the first move toward fixing the unwound gearbox, it's not much of a step mind but it's a start. Before I do anything else though I'd like to ask some advice regarding what I've just discovered.

first up I'd been lead to believe that gearboxes typically unwind by taking your foot of the gas before dipping the clutch in reverse. I never do that. Nor do I ever reverse at speed. What I did do was to gently reverse exactly as normal for a distance of around ten feet, just enough in fact to be able to shut the garage doors behind me, and that was it - unwound!

As the car was still facing nose inwards in the garage I needed to turn it around to enable me to get the front off and have a look in daylight, this meant pushing it backwards up the drive, turning it around, then pushing it back down again, which I did this afternoon.

What I noticed was the car can still be pushed while stuck in gear, as if the gearbox isn't totally meshed. It makes a gear graunching noise, and some occasional compression can be felt, but I was able to push it both backwards and forwards, and the compression pulses were only occasional.

If I start it up it will reverse for just a couple of feet then lock up. Anyway, I cleared the bottom end of the garage, wrapped some left over foam around the rear bumper for protection, and pushed it right back against the rear garage wall as that'll give me more room at the front to work in.



I've also set up a makeshift bench at the front of the garage to change over all the brake disks and callipers to my spare gearbox.



It was when inspecting the spare gearbox that I noticed a slight stress fracture in one of the alloy bosses that hold the callipers, it's a hairline thing and doesn't go all the way through the casting but it did make me wonder if the box will be ok with that there? I've tried to show it on the pic below but it came out blurred.



So next step is to start stripping it down and take the lid off the old box to see what's what. I'm sort of hoping that it might be fixable in situ because of the ability for it to be pushed around easily, but so long as that crack in the brake boss isn't likely to worsen if the worst comes to the worst then I'll replace the whole box.

In order to tackle the gearbox work that is now necessary I have made a space at the rear of the garage so that when the car is pushed right back I then have the room to work up front. To prevent any damage occurring to the rear caused by scraping the car against the garage wall I wrapped up the bumper with a little foam left over from trimming the seats as shown above somewhere.

The car was then pushed right back against the wall, and a temporary bench set up at the front which now holds the replacement gearbox. I'm hoping that I may get away with just a little gearbox 'corrective surgery' rather than a full transplant, but if the worst comes to the worst then at least I'm prepared.



So this afternoon off came the front wing to allow for easier access, and again this gives a little more room in which to work. With the negative earth terminal on the battery disconnected, I set to removing the bits that are in the way, these are the heater tubes, gear lever control, and the air filter support brace.

The gearbox lid is now get-at-able, so I carefully undid the set of 11mm nuts that hold it down. As two of those also hold down the front brake pipes it's a bit tricky as you can't really bend them buggers out of the way once loose without running the risk of fracturing them. This has taken me to the point where I can now carefully lift the lid, and hope that I'm able to catch the detent spring before it leaps into the bowels of the gearbox. I suppose that if I removed even more stuff access would be that much easier but I'll see how it goes for now.



When I have more time I will lift the lid, and attempt to screw the collar back on to the shaft and peen it on (hopefully) permanently, if it works then the car will be fixed and I'll be all smiles, if it doesn't - possibly less so.

It's funny how that works isn't it? On a sunny day with the engine purring along, or in other words - when I'm winning, a 2cv is the only way to travel. Then on a rainy day with a broken gearbox I begin to doubt my sanity. And rainy day it became despite looking so sunny in the photo's, by the time I got to lifting the lid the rain was coming in the garage sideways!

I also noticed when I took the wing off that the insides of both front wheels are thickly spattered with grease. The stuff seems to be escaping past the rubber boots at the bottom of the drive-shafts. I used cable ties on them rather than the metal banding stuff so I'm wondering if that's why?

There's not meant to be a clip at the outer end of the sliding joint bellows. With the large suspension movement of the 2CV the bellows would be torn (as was one of mine). If grease is escaping past then I suspect there is too much in the joint. Hard to judge I know. Maybe someone more experienced than me will have a tip on this one.

Or maybe you mean the 2cv joint boot. That would explain the grease on the wheel backs. You have to get the cable ties on that very tight and, of course, there are 2 on it.

Yes I do mean the 2cv joint bellows, but I'm glad that you mentioned that there shouldn't be one on the drive-shaft lower as I put a cable tie on there too. (which I'll now remove.)

I thought the 2cv joint ties were done up very tight but obviously as they are leaking there is still room for improvement. I'll cut them free and try again. Thanks for your input knightly.