Transmission question

Hi there! Norwegian newbie here. I bought my second X1/9 this summer after having been without one for about three years - the first one was a '73 1300, the second is - according to the registration - a '74, but there's not much left of that '74. Most of the car (not quite sure how much yet) is probably an '87 or so, so plastic side trim on the doors, 1500 engine, electric windows and the five-speed tranny.

I was a member with the club back when I had the first car, and re-joined within days of getting the 'new' one, as this seems to be the number 1 knowledge bank for all things X.

Now, I'm no mechanic. But my uncle is, and the idea is that I'll be spending some time this winter tinkering with the car along with him. That way I might actually learn something. The brakes are going to need a light overhaul, and I'm looking for some new tires, but the most important thing is probably the transmission. It doesn't change from first to second smoothly, so I'm guessing there's a synchro ring that needs replacing. As my uncle has no experience with this kind of car, he wanted me to ask here how the five-speed 'boxes are to work with? From what I've read, the X1/9 seems, in general, to be a pretty straight-forward car mechanically. But do you need any special tools to replace that synchro ring, for example?

I'd appreciate any feedback on this.

Best regards
Are
Norway

Hello Are,
Welcome back into the fold!
Sorry I can't really advise on the actual job of stripping down the gearbox as I've never attempted it on an X1/9. But this link may be of some help, www.seattlex19.org/data/5s101/
Jim.

Thanks, Jim - that's undoubtedly going to be very useful. It seems to list what kind of equipment we will need.

Hopefully the ferry connection between Newcastle and the Norwegian west coast will be restored later this year, so it'll again be feasible to bring the car over for a holiday. I took the old one over in 2005, and did the whole round trip: Newcastle - Edinburgh - Lake District - Wales - Bath - London - York - Newcastle. One week of driving, 20 minutes with the roof on. Brilliant sunshine the rest of the time. But I guess that's your average English June

Hi Are

The five speed box is pretty simple and can be stripped with normal tools but does require a strong pair of circlips to change the synchros for gears 3 to 5. Gears 1 and 2 are simpler. In my experience the problem with second gear is not wear on the synchro but on the cone on the gear itself. Don't be suprised if you end up needing a new second gear. Have a good look at third gear as it gets similar hammer to second and is often badly worn. first fourth and fifth are normaly fine

You will need a gasket set and I would recomend changing all the seals when it is apart. Be careful when fitting the selector rod seal as it is easy to distort when fitting. You will also probably find that the reverse idler is worn. Its a relatively cheap part so I always change that.

Photograph from all angles as you dismantle. It really helps when putting it back together.

Regards

Steve

Thanks for the info, Steve! The plan is to open it up and have a look, and then order the parts, so I don't end up buying anything I don't need. Second and third gears seem to be harder to find (even when driving...) than the others, undoubtedly because, as you say, they are the ones that are most prone to wear.

But I'll probably need the gasket and seal set anyway, so I'll order that. Do you have any experience with an eBay seller called D G Rally? They seem to have both the gasket and seal kit plus a replacement digital clock and a speedo cable - and I need both.

Thanks again!

Are

Welcome Are DG RALLY are very very good i would recommend them...Pete

Thanks a lot, both of you. Now I just need to find out what I need

Velkommen Are
Godt å se flere norske innom her.
Mulig jeg kan ha en 5 trinns liggende, kan sjekke.


Welcome Are
Please post some pics of your car. Do the chassienumber correspond with the year model?

God dag! Det er vel ikke så høflig å snakke norsk, så jeg tar det på engelsk i stedet. Men flott om du sjekker hva du har!

Thanks, Kai Rune! My car is currently in winter storage about 375 kms away, and I don't have the chassis number readily available right now, so I can't really tell. But doesn't it have to, in order for the car to be properly registered as a '74? I'm assuming it was originally a '74 with the current registration number (which is correct for '74), and it was then restored using a '87 or '88 car that had the plastic side mouldings. The way it is now, it's a 1500 in most aspects, the bumpers and period wheels being pretty much the only things that say 1300.

A few images for your viewing pleasure

Look awesome. I will check next time I
m in the garage.
Have not seen that car around , Is it imported?

The only things I can see that are 1300 parts are the rear number plate lights and the bumpers. Front grill and chin spoiler

Hi,

When I rebuilt my gearbox, I took lots of photos and to be honest I could have taken more, so make sure you do that. It will really help if you have any reassembly quetions.

Take your time and it's all pretty stright forward.

Oh one thing to watch out for is little springs and ball bearings may go ping across the workshop, so take care when disassembling. They are behind a plate that go to the selector rods, not sure what it's called but I had some not fun time searching for bits.

and that is either a nice conversion to 1300 bumpers or a 1300 with an afaul lot of 1500 parts on it.

Have fun with the gearbox rebuild, it is so satisfying each time you change gear and it doesn't crunch and more.

Alex

Kai Rune Aulie wrote: Look awesome. I will check next time I'm in the garage.
Have not seen that car around , Is it imported?

Well, that depends on how you look at it, and as you can see from the other guys responding, my thoughts about the car seem to be pretty right - this is a much newer car than the one that originally had these licence plates (and, most likely, the chassis number). The original car was registered for the first time in Rogaland in '74. I don't know where this car came from, but if it was bought as a donor car - which seems very likely - it is probably an import. But the car has been as it is today for at least four years, probably more. I bought it from Valdres last June.

Charles Whyte wrote: I thought 74 cars had a different rear panel

peter thorpe wrote: The only things I can see that are 1300 parts are the rear number plate lights and the bumpers. Front grill and chin spoiler

That's what I've been thinking as well. The original chassis number probably belonged to a car that had deteriorated badly, so the owner did a 'restoration' - probably to the donor car So it's not one for the purists, but I'm very happy with it nevertheless. My previous one was an original late '73, and this is a completely different car to drive - much more comfortable and a bit quicker - and as I much prefer the early bumpers, I think it looks gorgeous

Alex Baker wrote: ...and that is either a nice conversion to 1300 bumpers or a 1300 with an afaul lot of 1500 parts on it.

Have fun with the gearbox rebuild, it is so satisfying each time you change gear and it doesn't crunch and more.

Thanks for the tips, Alex! As you can see, I think your first alternative is the case.

Looking forward to smooth gear changes...

Yeah its a great looking x1/9

I'm sorry for going off topic in my own topic, but I was just wondering whether any of you fine ladies or gentlemen are able to identify the wheels on my car, in the pictures earlier in the topic? Are they Cromodoras? I can't seem to find any that look just like them. I'd really like to try to find some center caps that fit, and I'm thinking that it'd probably help to know what wheels they are.

I dismantled the transmission a couple of weeks ago along with my (much more mechanically skilled) uncle (i.e. he dismantled it while I tried to learn something). I've now ordered the parts from Laursen in Denmark - hopefully I'll receive the right ones, there are some mistakes in the catalogue - and it'll be back on the road soon. We'll go to work on it again one of the days in next week, but the parts probably won't arrive by then, so we'll do the typical speedo wire replacement and some other fiddly stuff instead. Can't wait to get it going again...

And in other news, I've sold my daily driver, an old Alfa 156 V6, and will be replacing it on Wednesday with a much newer Alfa GT. I figured, why own one lovely car designed by Bertone when you can own two?