Stiff Gear Changing After Long Run.
 

Yesterday I took my 75 on what was its first longish run since my ownership. After 55 miles of consistent 70 mph running I turned off the motorway to find that the previously smooth gear changes were now quite difficult, needing considerably more effort. On the return journey the gearchanges were smooth until I was on the motorway, but once off it they were as difficult as on the outbound trip.

When the car had cooled I moved the gearstick, with the engine off, and the changes were as smooth as ever.

Any ideas please?

Thanks.

My 75 tourer started to suffer with stiff gearchange after a run, obviously wasn't the clutch as it was equally difficult to move the gear stick and select gears with or without the engine running.
Checked the selector cables thinking they would be semi-seized, but they were ok.
Took the car to Kevin at MG/Rover centre Wickford expecting to have gearbox repaired/replaced, but after a nominal fee for gearbox flush and new oil it was 90% better, still very slightly stiff when hot, but easily liveable with.
Check your selector cables and if they are good, change the gearbox oil using the correct specification oil, worked for me and was a cheap repair.
The car now has covered another 10,000 miles or so since the oil change and the gearchange is as it should be, even after a long run.
Hope that helps, Paul.

It is surprising how many cars have never had a gear box oil change in the working life of the engine - see if your paper work shows a gearbox oil change - if not i would get one done. :shrug:

Thanks for the replies.

Unfortunately the car came with no paperwork, but the book was stamped for an oil service and inspection in November 2019 at the same time and place that it was MOT'd. Since then its only covered 1261 miles. The dashboard is showing next oil service due in 10XXX miles.

Prior to that it was MOT'd at another garage for about 15 years on the trot, so probably serviced at the same time. Unfortunately the book's previous stamp was at 59980 miles at that garage.

I presume that a gearbox oil change and/or level check is part of a full service.

I'll get MGR John to check it out as I will be taking the car there soon for another item.

Unless the garage/mechanic is known and trusted by you I wouldn't presume anything as far as servicing is concerned. Back in ye olde days of manual tappet adjustment my mate marked his adjusters with tipex, got the car back and the tipex hadn't been broken. He went straight back and created merry hell, service cost refunded and a proper service completed.

I was just asking if it is part of the normal criteria list for a full service. This was done by the previous owner at his local garage so I have no idea who actually carried out the work.

Gearbox oil is on the service schedule, due to be changed every 90k miles.

Servicing schedules are available on this site, here.

In that case it should have been done sometime in 2015.

With the engine off is the gearchange ok? if so i would change the clutch fluid first and give it a good bleed through the system

Yes, Just spoken to MGR John, given it a couple of runs round the block - fault gone, gear changes as smooth as normal. He also suggested starting the engine, then engaging 5th gear. If the engine continued to run it was a clutch fault. But engine shut down immediately both times. The common denominator is the longish motorway runs, probably the first for god knows how long.

John will check it out later this week unless the problem re-occurs first.