Manual gearboxes

Gearbox repairs in Christchurch

If it crunches, whines, jumps out of gear or will not select at all, bring it to the people who do nothing else. Manual gearboxes have been the whole business since 1984, for the motoring public and for other workshops, and we have worked on them at Antigua Street since 2019.

We find out what is wrong before we quote

Gearbox faults are easy to guess at and expensive to guess wrong. A whine that sounds like a bearing can be a worn gear face. A crunch into second is often a synchro, but it can just as easily be a selector fork or a clutch that is not releasing fully - which is a much smaller bill and nothing to do with the gearbox internals at all.

So we start with the symptoms and a road test. That tells us where to look and rules out the cheap explanations. It cannot tell anybody what is worn: nothing does, until the gearbox is out and dismantled and every shaft, bearing, synchro and gear face has been inspected and measured. That is the point at which you are told what it needs, and it comes before you are asked to commit to anything.

What we repair

• Worn or noisy bearings on input, output and layshafts
• Worn synchro rings and hubs causing crunching or baulking
• Selector forks, rails and detents causing jumping out of gear
• Damaged or chipped gear teeth
• Oil leaks from input and output seals and from the bellhousing
• Clutch faults found during the same job, while the box is out
• Transfer cases and differentials on four wheel drive vehicles

The repair, step by step

1. Talk it throughSymptoms, the vehicle, how you use it and how long you plan to keep it. This changes the recommendation more than anything else.
2. Road test and inspectWe drive it where we can, check the clutch operation, the linkage and the oil condition, and look for the cheap explanation first.
3. Remove and stripUnless the fault turns out to be outside the gearbox, the unit comes out and is dismantled completely.
4. Measure and reportYou get told what is worn, what caused it, and what it will cost - alongside the exchange and used options if they make better sense.
5. Repair and reassembleNew bearings, seals, synchros and gears as required, built back up to specification and checked as it goes together.
6. Refit and testBack in the vehicle, filled with the correct oil once it is fitted, and road tested through every gear before it is handed over.

When a repair is not the right answer

Sometimes it is not. If the box has been run noisy for months, the debris has usually been through everything and the parts bill for a repair closes on the price of a reconditioned unit - at which point an exchange gearbox is both cheaper and quicker, and it carries a guarantee. On an older vehicle a checked used gearbox may be all it is worth spending.

We will tell you which of the three we would pick if it were ours. That advice costs nothing and it is the main reason people come back.

Do you work on my vehicle?

If it has a manual gearbox, almost certainly. We cover the makes on New Zealand roads, from everyday imports to utes, light commercials, classics and race cars.