Hiya

 

First of all I’m sorry for what is likely to be a barrage of questions over the coming days and weeks.

As some may have read I’ve just bought a 2006 2.2TDCI estate. 

I have an issue with reverse gear. It works fine and selects fine. The issue I have is there is no gate if that makes sense. I thought from years ago these boxes had synchro reverse gear and a lift up arrangement to select reverse. This car has nothing you can literally accidentally select reverse instead of first, whilst I haven’t so far selected reverse instead of 1st it’s a distinct possibility and will give my Mrs real worries.

can anyone help at all? Should there be a gate? Should there be a lift up? Is it just tired and subsequently the box is tired too and it’s all just gone? Is it likely someone has done the dual mass at some point and messed up the change cables etc. I literally don’t know where to begin with this one.

Thanks

Hi, this is a good site but you'll find more mk3 expertise on talkford. 

I’m hoping I’ve found at least in part the problem. I’ll hopefully start taking centre console apart tomorrow to confirm….

Having searched eBay I’ve found a few gear change/shift assemblies and they appear from photos albeit not taken for the purposes I want to have a large spring assembly to the right of the assembly which appears in just the right spot to create the gate for reverse. Hopefully something has occurred if I’m right with that spring such that the lever has no resistance to stop it going all the way over and will find a used replacement. Hopefully any thing to do with lift up reverse is a distance memory associated with my 2002 Mk3 Mondeo I had years ago and things had just changed over the years or because it’s an ST

Hello @bantam_dave21 I've never come across any manual gearbox that has synchromesh on reverse gear. I would imagine the engineering that would be needed to be quite expensive.

If you have the 5 speed manual gearbox then there is no lift up collar. Instead you have to apply a slight downward pressure on the gearstick while selecting reverse.

You can see the operation of the gearbox shown in the owners manual

https://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_Content/vdirsnet/OwnerManual/Home/Content?variantid=1210&languageCode=en&countryCode=USA&Uid=G951909&ProcUid=G876463&userMarket=GBR&div=f&vFilteringEnabled=False

 

Thanks @unofix the synchro comment was a memory and could absolutely be wrong. Going back to the later escort turbo diesels that had lift up knob for reverse I was told at the time it was because the reverse was synchro mesh and could be engaged at any almost any speed (never made sense to me as the shafts would literally be spooning the wrong way but was also told this is why reverse didn’t whine as much on them as they were bevel cut gears) 

mine is a 6 speed ST TDCI and no sign of a lift up reverse know but also zero resistance to prevent you selecting reverse instead of 1st and vice versa and recalled my first Mk3 mondeo that had lift up reverse and six speed box which also had lift up for reverse. 

@unofixim currently thinking I have a 5 speed selector mech on a 6 speed box perhaps. No sign on the gear stick of any previous lift up mechanism and it’s not got original ST knob. All the gears are lovely and smooth for a 16 year old car just can easily mix 1st and reverse…..

 

I had a 2005 mondeo ST TDCi a few years back and I remember that had no lift up collar, believe later models were fitted with it.

Never manage to engage it into reverse when moving forward, but did accidently try a few times. 

Most modern manuals do have a synchro'd reverse nowadays.

It's so noticeable when you jump back in an old car and crunch reverse in through impatience!  Some small new cars do still use an unsync'd reverse.

I'm sure it was a lift up collar on the 2006 Ghia X I had.  When R is next to 1st you need something to differentiate.  I reckon someone's just been mashing it in regardless and broken it.

On 2/8/2022 at 8:02 PM, TomsFocus said:

Most modern manuals do have a synchro'd reverse nowadays.

It's so noticeable when you jump back in an old car and crunch reverse in through impatience!  Some small new cars do still use an unsync'd reverse.

I'm sure it was a lift up collar on the 2006 Ghia X I had.  When R is next to 1st you need something to differentiate.  I reckon someone's just been mashing it in regardless and broken it.

The main thing I dislike about my wife's MK2.5Focus 1.8 HE is the IB5 box doesn't have synchro on reverse, my MK2 1.8 TDCi MTX-75 box does so at least 50% of the time when I come to reverse out of a car park space in my wife's car I crunch getting into reverse.

 

My car, I can just throw it in reverse any old how and it just works.