No reverse gear

[Kris]

I have just gone to engage reverse on my 68 bay,but for some reason I can no longer find any reverse. I have all other gears, but with 3rd and 4th now feeling slightly tighter to engage.
It was fine moments before when I used reverse in a car park, then after a short journey I went to engage reverse and could find nothing and it felt loose.
I have an empi shift which iv been using for a number of years without issues. I have had no problems engaging gears or any noise coming from the gearbox, which in itself is relatively new having been rebuilt and not done many miles since.
I'm thinking it could be the shifter that has failed, but everything felt normal.
Has anyone had anywhere this happen to them before? Iv just spent a large amount on bodywork repares to pass the MOT so I'm looking for a bit of reassurance.

 

[Moseley]

Very hard to judge as there are quite a few things it could be. I'd suggest that you first take a look at the various bushes and connections along the shift rod and see if something has failed. It could just be the shift plate out of alignment, but if you say it is something that has just stopped working, I'd lean more towards a component failing.

 

[Kris]

Iv just had the shifter off and all seems OK with that. Iv had a look at the linkage and that looks normal, but with some oil by the gearbox not a large amount.
Iv been looking through the hayes manual and trawling the Internet for ideas, but none of the symptoms seem to fit the diagnosis's available.

 

[gas1man]

Check out the lock out reverse plate at the base of the gear stick.
It might be shot.

J & P

 

[Alex VW Heritage]

Other thing to check on those empi shifters is the nylon block on the bottom is rivetted onto the shifter, the rivets can pull through the nylon block so an easy fix is to drill them out and replace with small nuts and bolts.

 

[Kris]

Cheers guys, I think i'm going to dig out the original stock gear stick and see if that works. Iv been asking around and the census seem to be that empi shifters are not great andbit unlikely to b the gear box as they are pretty much bullet proof. Here's hoping that it's the gear stick so I can get some use out of the bus before the summer is over!