5711, no first gear.

[sveinha]

My 1978 5711 have no first gear, have never had it in the few years I have owned it and for my use, I have never missed it. Now I'm about to sell it and would like to do a repair if it can be easily done.

Reverse and all other gears work fine but when moving the stick to left, it will not move up/forward, not even a little bit. Left and down/backwards engages reverse so the shift fork is moving in one direction but not in the other.

Any good ideas and tips for an easy repair? Known problem?

 

[bignikki]

It could possible be the detent rod is ok in the neutral or reverse slot but won't push into the first position.
1st and reverse are on the same gear shift stirrup in the gearbox the detent rod is what moves it into gear, there are 3 slots on the top of it to hold it in to the selected gear (or neutral)
On top of the gearbox cover between your legs is a row of big sort of bolts that hold a ball bearing on a spring that engages the slot.
I'm not sure which one does the first/ reverse gear but I would hazard a guess that it is the second from the right (as you sit in the seat) try unscrewing it and see if it will then go in to first. Be carefull though that you don't move it too far forward and lose the slots!
They can get worn so they don't want to engage.
Iv'e mabe made this sound too complicated but it's not really.

 

[sveinha]

Thanks nikki.

The second "bolt" from right is the right one. Tried to force the detent rod (which I called "shift fork") forwards but it only moved a couple of millimeters, backwards it moved to the next slot (about 3 centimeters).

I removed the gearstick and the cover where the gearstick enters the gearbox and now the detent rod moves as it should. It got too dark and cold to finish the job today but it is obvious that the gearstick somehow gets stuck when engaging the first gear.

I'll figure this one out tomorrow

 

[sveinha]

I only got 20 minutes in the tractor today but it seems that the gearstick is bent. The gearstick have never clicked into the three positions when moving left-right but when I mounted the stick 60-70 degrees rotated so that it didn't touch the slot in the dashboard, all 6 gears were available and the stick also snapped into the three neutral positions

I need heat to straighten the gearstick so that will be done at work tomorrow.

I wonder why the stick is bent in the first place...

 

[bignikki]

Result! Glad it's sorted.