Newage gearbox

[perdixrouge]

Hi Guys. The Newage box on my dumper has developed a wandering gearstick - kinda like stirring porridge, and its pot luck wether you go forwards or backwards. Have any of you had the same and know the fix? The box itself is pretty good, no noises, and no jumping, so am hoping that its something simple. Its a 3 or 4 tonne articulated, with a 3 cyl Lister unit, and I think its an Aveling Barford, but not sure. The box is the standard 3 forward, 1 rev Newage fitted to every yellow dumper ever made!
All replies gratefully received!

Pete

[essexpete]

I am not an expert but it might just be worn selectors in the top opf the box.

[martyn williams]

Take the top of the box off and look for wear in selectors and the end of the gear stick that fits into the selector.Long time ago that I worked on one.May have worn out detent springs. Sounds like the selector shafts are not locking in their correct gear positions due to wear.If the detent springs are worn out along with the balls at the end of those springs you will get the symptoms that you discribe.If the end of the gear stick selector is worn it can be built up with weld .
Martyn

[Julian]

Take off the gear lever. There's a plate between the two selector rails with a slot in it. This stops you selecting two gears at once. This slot enlarges with use so build it back up with MIG and you'll probably cure the problem.. (well that's what I needed to do on my Thwaites Orion.)

Julian.

[FOWLER MAN]

Hi,
It's a long time since I did anything with these, but it doesn't sound like worn selectors or worn D tents to me.
It could be a worn plate between the selectors as Julian says.
You should find a spring on the gearstick under the cover,
The spring holds the ball on the stick down onto its seat and is held by a square retaining / locking plate.
These can come adrift and cause the problem you desribe. If it has the locking plate is probably down in the box somewhere.
Alternatively there is a pin through the ball on some boxes which locates in slots in the tower in which the gearstick sits, I have seen these shear / wear off and cause similar problems. Some boxes use pads located in the tower to hold the ball in place.
I hope thats all it is, good luck.
Fred

[perdixrouge]

Thanks to all who have responded - the problem turned out much sillier than any of those suggested. At some time in its life, the gear stick had been broken/cut off about an inch above the housing, and the repair was simply slide a piece of steel tube over the broken ends and tack weld to both bits of stick. This was hidden under the rubber rain boot, so not discovered untill I popped the top off the box and then stripped the boot off. Lo and behold, one of the tack welds had broken, and the cranked top half of the stick was rotating in the tube, but not able to pull out. A 5 minute session with the mig, and all is now good.

Once again, thanks to all.