Can't get into neutral

[Sparkrite]

Basic story is on my 365 gearbox I added two thin shim pieces to the inner faces of the tangs on the cam for the external ball detent. It had the desired effect of reducing the free play. However now the gearbox will not go into neutral(although the gear change will) the,and when I select reverse or 5th, the gearbox locks up and will not rotate.
I can still move both the gear lever, and input selector shaft in all positions as if normally changing the gears.
I didn't even remove the cam/ball detent so it's not a case of wrong assembly. Is there a simple fix or has something gone wrong within the gearbox.

[S2Zetec54]

Sorry I can’t help, I’m not an engineer or haven’t got that experience with the Europa box. I don’t fully understand what you have altered but I would be tempted to restore the original set up before your mod and see if the issues remain as a start. Sorry I can’t help be of any more help

[Sparkrite]

I'm no engineer either but think I may have pushed the cam beyond normal travel whilst tinkering. I'm going to remove the rear gearbox cover and hopefully I can resolve it from there.

[jbcollier]

Sounds like it is somehow stuck in one of the gears so when you select neutral, it's still in gear.  When you select another, it locks because it is in two gears at the same time.

Select each gear one at a time until you find the one where is is not locked, that is the gear it is stuck in.  That will narrow down where you need to look for the problem.

[Dilkris]

John appears to understand what the problem is - I however am having difficulty in understanding what you actually did. You added shims to the inner faces of the cam plate....? Are those the 2 faces that make contact with the ball in reverse and 5th? If so - how did you do this?

[Sparkrite]

Yes, I just soldered on the shims as a temporary try out. This was done in situ without the need to remove the end case and weld and grind the cam for a more permanent mod. I've now removed the end case. Nothing seems amis other than a ball bearing has come adrift. I think this is for the rocking lever as it goes into the socket. A small ball bearing is already in the socket. I haven't yet tried to move the three gear change shaft thingies with the square recess.

[BDA]

You should be in neutral now. That is unlikely to be a ball bearing but rather a detent ball. I suspect it came from the cover for that shaft with the scallops. If it is a ball bearing, that would be a big problem!

Can you turn the engine now? Shift it?

I thank JB for correcting me. I didn’t see the 5th gear shift fork. I still don’t believe your loose balls are not part of any bearings .

[Sparkrite]

The larger bearing within the case seemed to come adrift as I was jiggling the cover off. I have a vague recollection of there being two
ball bearings inside the rocking lever socket when I was lasting there 2 years ago so it shouldn't be an issue once I can confirm this via the manual. I've obviously already removed the external detent bearing.

[Sparkrite]

The good news is that once I aligned the yellow fork in the last image,I managed to turn the engine over with a socket on the front pulley so the gearbox is not locked now. However I still have to figure out the loose ball bearing found in the end case. The largest ball bearing in this image is for the indent lever and was always outside. The smallest bearing was found inside the socket on the left side of the image,the mid size bearing was loose and seems a much better fit in the socket than the smaller bearing. On the upper left in the image is a spring which does not function smoothly once in contact with the triangular cam on the rocking lever housing but I can't get the bearing to work here either.

[jbcollier]

The photo from your Monday post shows it in 5th gear.  This is correct as it should be in 5th gear when you remove the rear cover top prevent a detent ball from falling out.