# No Reverse, difficult 1st and 2nd



## Fluff68

Hi, thank you for adding me to your forum, I am a new owner of a Fiat Ducato 2.3 (not new to campervans/motorhomes).

almost finished converting into a day van when yesterday 2nd gear started to crunch and then would even go into 1st gear, managed to pull away in second but lost reverse when parking, this seems to be where the problems are lying, took apart the gear linkage and pivot (as advised on this site ) all greased up, still the same. The Gear stick will go up and down but limited to hardly any movement side to side. The previous owner said a recon gearbox was put in a year ago.

Sat here scratching head and worrying how much this is going to cost me ! :crying: I sold my VW for something a bit more reliable.

Many thanks in advance


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## BillCreer

Are you sure that the clutch if fully activating when you put your foot full down on the peddle?


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## ozwhit

hi this is a common problem on ducatos, theres an overflow which drips onto the mechanism , if your handy with spanners , its doable , ive posted a tutorial , ill see if i can find , but should be more than a hours labour at a garage .


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## ozwhit

http://forums.motorhomefacts.com/149-fiat-ducato/108887-ducato-gear-linkage-overhaul-pics.html

there you go . regards gary


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## Fluff68

Hi, thank you for your help.

It's not the clutch.

Gary we tried your link first, sadly it hasnt worked, looks like a trip to the garage, bit gutted really, the other half is handy with a spanner but this has stumped him.


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## Pudsey_Bear

I had a similar problem while away on our 07 Relay, it was the actual dash assembly at fault, just two bolts holding it on had gone missing, once refitted it was fine, might not be your problem, but worth a look, simple fix hopefully.

If not the above can you get under it while someone moves the gear lever and see what's happening?


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## Mrplodd

Almost certainly this is going to be a linkage issue rather than gearbox internals. 

Start at one end (dashboard) and check everything is tight and all the bolts are present.

Andy


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## Fluff68

Thank you for the replies, we know that the van had a recon gearbox and clutch done under a year ago, we've spoken the garage who did this bus it only had a 6 months guarantee and it wasn't transferable. we've done the lubricating, must admit the nothing at the gear box end seems stiff just at the gear shift end will go up and down but not side to side very well, if we do manage to get it into reverse then the whole thing seizes again until with loads of force to return it to the gears.


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## cabby

You do need to have one in the cab and one underneath so that you can see where and how much play there is in the linkage before going down the garage route.Is it the same even without the engine running.

cabby


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## eurajohn

Most likely at the gear change lever end, take the boot off from around the lever and you will find a plastic "gate" that determines where the selector assemblies work.
I'd guess this is where you will need to make adjustments.




.


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## Fluff68

Right then after cleaning all the linkages, making sure the 2 cables are free gear shaft was moving through all the gears, didn't check with engine running so don't know if we had 1st to 5th, but then checked after spraying with wd 40, 3rd was where 1st is 3rd was where 5th was could get 3rd but then, put it into reverse and its totally locked up now, can get reverse with a struggle but that's all. And now reverse is where 1st should be. I'm thinking gearbox has misaligned


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## Mrplodd

Noooooo!!

Nothing can have moved since you started seeking out the problem. By what you have said you have clearly moved something checking. That is evident from the fact that everything "seems" to have moved across a bit. That shows that something is/was misaligned. 
There's is nothing inside the gearbox that can realistically move BUT linkage is notorious.

My money is STILL on this being a linkage issue.

Andy


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## eurajohn

You are approaching the problem from the wrong end!
The gate adjuster is in the cab, I'll lay money on that's where your problems and resolution to them is.


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