Solved: Reverse Gear Crunch!

Ben Harris · Post by **Ben Harris** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 8:29 am

I just thought this might be of interest to some of you, who may be having the same problem.

Over the past year my '89 ES had begun crunching whenever I put it into reverse. This had got progressively worse from an occasional small crunch, to a guaranteed everytime, loud crunch. I'd tried adjusting the clutch, but there was no more adjustment left iin the cable, and I feared it would mean an expensive new clutch.

Recently, it had got to the point where it was really irritating me, so a couple of weeks ago I changed the gearbox oil for some expensive (although not as expensive as the official Volvo stuff) EP synthetic gearbox oil. This made the car feel smoother and quieter whilst going along, but it still crunched when putting it in reverse.

The clutch on my 480 had always been fairly stiff, and last summer Lee suggested that I should change the clutch cable before it snapped. Well, it didn't snap, but all the talk of snapped cables recently made me think about it again, so I bought a new one, and spent a couple of evenings lying with my head under the pedals. and swearing alot!

Anyway - the new cable gave me a lot more adjustment than I had with the old one (presumably the old one had stretched alot), and now that I've got the clutch adjusted properly, my reverse crunch has completely dissapeared! Also, the clutch now feels much lighter, and changing gear is much smoother and nicer now, making the car much more enjoyable to drive!

Ben.

Murf · Post by **Murf** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 9:20 pm

cheers Ben, my turbo has a stiff clutch and crunches like a good 'un. might be a good time to change the cable BEFORE it snaps!

spend this evening changing the (snapped) cable on my S, only took an hour, i was pleasantly surprised as this included a tea break and time allocated for jumping about and swearing when trying to bolt the shoulder bolt cable carrier thing back on to the top of the clutch pedal!

as i had to do it in a railway station car park i got quite a few funny looks, not least cos i had my 480's parked side by side!!!

a lesson learned!!

where did you get the gearbox oil from and what did it cost?
i think mine might need the later fully synthetic gearbox oil

Ben Harris · Post by **Ben Harris** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 10:47 pm

1 hour - that's impressive! The oil that I used in the end, was the later synthetic type, on advice given to me by someone at work, even though my owners manual says to use the older type (dino-oil, or semi-synthetic - can't remember which)....

I got the oil from my local "motor discount store" type place. Originally I bought some GL4 spec oil, which was what my owners manual for my '89 480 said to buy (my '94 480 says GL5 spec), but on the advice of some people here, took it back. One of the people I work with (who's a mechanic for a rally team at the weekends) recomended that I put this in there:

Comma SX75w90 Synthetic Based GL5 Gear Oil. A 5 litre carton of it cost me Â£23.00 from the same shop.

This falls within the spec listed for my '94 480 (although it was to go in my '89 480), and he said that out of all the gearbox oils available, (considering at the time I didn't realise it was the clutch cable that was the problem), this would help the most to improve the gear change.

Also, I didn't realise that the owners manual says you should change the gearbox oil every 36,000 miles / 3 years (whichever comes sooner). I suspect there are probably lots of 480's out there that are running on much older gearbox oil than this, as I'd have thought most people don't realise you're supposed to change it - I certainly didn't, and the guy at work who advised me on it was very surprised, saying most gearboxes are designed to never need the oil changing!

Ben.

Murf · Post by **Murf** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 10:59 pm

well, mine is leaking so rather than it being old i'm more worried about there being none left!
will have a look for this oil tomorrow and add it to the list of jobs to get round to one day!!
Thanks

Ben Harris · Post by **Ben Harris** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 11:06 pm

Oh, one little tip you might need, RE: clutch cable. I found that for the first couple of days of driving after fitting it, it took a while for the cable to "settle down". When I set off work work yesterday, the bite point was in the middle of the pedal stroke. By the time I got to work, it was right on the floor (1 hour drive - most of it moving along slowly in traffic - lots of clutching). I adjusted it again before driving home, and the same happened during the drive back, although not quite as bad. Another adjustment before leaving for work this morning, and today it was fine.

Anyway - if you haven't got one with you already, keep a 10mm spanner handy in your car, so you don't get stranded because the clutch bite point has moved and you can't get it into gear!

Ben.

robkendall · Post by **robkendall** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 10:08 am

Murf wrote:..........swearing when trying to bolt the shoulder bolt cable carrier thing back on to the top of the clutch pedal!

Murf, and all....
I found that if you take out the bolt that holds all the pedals into the pedal box, and turn it around, so the nut is on the clutch pedal side rather than accelerator, its actually easier when changin the clutch cable, or working on that sort o thing.
basically, you undo the nut on this bolt, withdraw it just past the clutch pedal, remove the clutch pedal from the box, then all the gubbings at the top of the pedal can be got to easy.
works better for me, but im 6'2", so trying to get under the dash is a pain!!!

rgrds
rob