2nd gear on my Fourtrak

Forum: 

Hi all, I'm new here so please bear with me. Had my F73 about 12 months now and 2nd gear has become a real pain sometimes going up the gears it drops straight into 2nd other times I really have to mess about??? And going down through the gears it will never drop into 2nd. Just can't understand why it's only 2nd gear????

2nd Gear - That good old one !!

The problem is caused by the nut on the end of the mainshaft coming loose and allowing the whole shaft to move in the fore and aft direction. It only affects second as the action of selecting second with the gear lever pushes the shaft forwards in the gear box taking up the play which the loose nut has allowed and preventing the synchro hubs from doing what they are supposed to do which is to mesh the gears without crunching.

There is loads on this forum and its predecessor (is that stuff still on the net anywhere?) about this problem, so do a search and have a read. The good news is that for the price of a new nut (about £6 I think) it can be fixed. The bad news is that it is at the least a transfer-box-out-of-the-car job. Fiddly and expensive if you have to pay someone else to do it. In a really bad case the threads on the mainshaft can be damaged. This can repaired (or replaced if you are a lottery winner !!) but it requires the whole 'box to be dismantled.

There are plenty of people on here who know all about this so help should be pretty forthcoming if you decide to get stuck into it. Good luck.

Alastair.