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Hello,

I’m running an turbo nb with a five speed box. When in neutral, I have reciently noticed it is significantly harder to move the gear stick right into the 5/reverse gate than it is to go left into the 1/2 gate.

Is this a common issue or an easy fix?

When on the track it is making the gearchange from 4 to 5 problematic so need to get it sorted.

Any comments suggestion welcome.

Thanks

It's pretty normal, most others i've been in feel the same.

Not sure if it's part of the design though, or if it's just a matter of the detents for the left gates have worn more than the right (which would make sense since you use 1-2 every time you drive the car, but not necessarily 5-R)

The simplest thing to check is whether or not there's oil in the shifter turret.

Edit: ... and, if the small boot on the turret is torn, then whether or not there's dirt and crud down inside the turret.

5-speeds don't play well with turbos . If you like to give it the wellie, and it has a reasonable to high Kw count, it may be time to think about a 6-speed ...

But check the simple/cheap things first, and keep your fingers crossed.

greenMachine wrote:5-speeds don't play well with turbos . If you like to give it the wellie, and it has a reasonable to high Kw count, it may be time to think about a 6-speed ...

But check the simple/cheap things first, and keep your fingers crossed.

Yeah, but usually that results in either a stripped gear, or a busted casing, rather than it just feeling a bit stiff.

So I pulled the top off and the small rubber boot has perished and broken, and there is no oil in the turret. There is an oily film inside that is a bit gritty as a result of the broken boot. How do you clean the inside of the turret and get it working the way it should? Should I Take the turret off the gearbox?

Thanks for the advice so far......

Cheers

The turret on my NA8 box has a detent spring holder low down on the left side towards the rear that doubles as a drain plug. You can open that to flush it all out with brake clean or somesuch. Don't know about NB8B boxes though ... could be risky unless you have a spare box to practice on first.

Edit: forget that, just looked at the 6 speed parts diagram and it's totally different. There's a plug low down at the back of the turret but it looks like it's a welch plug. i.e non-removable unless you take the whole box out.

Buggar, just forget everything I said. I read you had an NB8B and didn't read the thread title.

If the NB 5-sp turret is like the nb 6-sp turret it's lubricated from the main transmission case (unlike the early 5-sp, with a small separate oil reservoir) so couldn't you just pour some oil into the top to wash the crud down, drain the gearbox oil completely (inc. crud) and re-fill to appropriate level?

No help on the stiff feel though, sorry...

Probably a bit late now but my 5 speed has always felt a bit notchy, especially when cold.
When I looked both rubber boots were persished and the turret oil well was dry.
So I replaced both boots and the white plastic cup bush.
Shifting has greatly improved and that notchiness is far less.

Unfortunately I now have a flow on problem with oil leaking from the turret. After 2 attempts to seal it. I am about to post about that on a more relevant thread if I can find one.