borg warner 35 weak reverse and no top gear.

[multi]

Hello everybody.

i have this bw 35 gearbox. which was working fine. but it was leaking badly everywhere.
so i decided to take it out of the car to change the seals.
to remove the front oil pump i had to take the valve body of. i took the pump apart to press in a new seal.
put it all together again .
adjusted the brake band by. torquing the adjusting screw to 10 ft lbs and reversing it by 3/4 turn. and then turn the lock nut.

I have now made a test drive and it hardly reverses and it will not go into top gear.
do you have any idea what i did wrong when i was putting my hands on this transmission.
best regards multi
by the way it does not leak any more ,

 

[harveyp6]

Problems with both TOP and REVERSE gear indicate a problem with the rear clutch. Bearing in mind what you have done, all I can think is that if you didn't have a problem with those gears before, somehow you haven't fitted the supply pipe for the rear clutch correctly.

 

[multi]

Thanks Harvey i will check that out. cheers

 

[multi]

Problems with both TOP and REVERSE gear indicate a problem with the rear clutch. Bearing in mind what you have done, all I can think is that if you didn't have a problem with those gears before, somehow you haven't fitted the supply pipe for the rear clutch correctly.

Hello Harvey.
I took the oil pan off the transmission this evening . the pipes seems to be sitting alright.
Then i took the pipe to the rear servo off and did an air pressure test of the rear band and servo, i saw that the servo did wiggle a little.
i decided to take off the servo to check the O-ring ( in the servo) it was flat and a little hard with a tiny scar. it is now replaced with a new one.
I was wondering why the servo attaching bolt was not in an equal length . a closer look told me that one of the bolts was broken and the bit is still sitting in the gearbox housing.
I can see that the servo has been wiggling for a while . the hole where the broken bolt has been sitting is oval and the other looks like there is threads in it. by working forth and back.
is it possible that that is the reason why it has so hard to reverse and how about the clutch how do i control it?
what do you think?
best regards multi

 

[harveyp6]

The rear servo doen't operate in TOP gear, only in REVERSE and "1". It's also applied in PARK but serves no function then. The forward rear servo bolt should have a pin on the end wich should locate the centre support. If the mounting hole in the servo is elongated, the servo should be replaced, and you should get the correct forward mounting bolt and use that as well. But none of the above will have any effect on the operation of TOP gear.

You could try putting an airline down the hole in the casing to the rear clutch and see if you can hear it working.

I have rear servos, and the special bolts.

 

[multi]

Hello Harvey.
i have just taken the gearbox of the car again. i had another broken gearbox from where i took the bolt and the rear servo. but it did not help.
which pipe goes to the rear clutch . i will take a close look at the valve body and the oil pump which i took off to chance the axle seal. to see what i did wrong.
Under testdriving yesterday i notisted that when i took hard off i first gear there was some shake like the clutch was slipping.
is it the same clutch in first as in third gear? or is it a signal problem why it will not go into top gear? how hard is it to take the rear clutch apart?

I bought another bw35 yesterday. please see picture. this is how the oilpan looked when i took it off. what does your experience say about that?
is it worth putting it on the car like it is? i adjusted the bands . the front servo who should be adjusted to 6mm free travel was 11mm. i air pressure tested them and it seemed like the band ends didn't bind.
well it is a lot of questions. I hope you have the time to answer a few of them.

thank you in advance . Peter.

 

[Penguin]

im no auto gearbox expert, but m my experience the sumps nearly always look like that, even on gearboxes that are functioning just fine!

 

[harveyp6]

which pipe goes to the rear clutch .

It's the only pipe that doesn't go to a servo.

Under testdriving yesterday i notisted that when i took hard off i first gear there was some shake like the clutch was slipping.
is it the same clutch in first as in third gear? or is it a signal problem why it will not go into top gear?

Have you got the kickdown cable fitted and correctly adjusted? The front clutch is engaged in all forward gears.

how hard is it to take the rear clutch apart?

Taking the front clutch apart is easy, the rear clutch is more difficult because you need to compress a spring, but the big problem is that you need special installers to refit the pistons once you've resealed them.

I bought another bw35 yesterday. please see picture. this is how the oilpan looked when i took it off. what does your experience say about that?
is it worth putting it on the car like it is? i adjusted the bands . the front servo who should be adjusted to 6mm free travel was 11mm. i air pressure tested them and it seemed like the band ends didn't bind.

I don't like fitting used boxes, especially if they are of unknown origin and I haven't driven them myself. All that black is most likely seal debris. That's not to say it wasn't driving OK before, but as it's out I wouldn't be keen to put it in and use it tbh.

 

[multi]

Hello Harvey.
Well it ended up by taking the engine out of the car because i noticed a rusty coreplug and i knew from earlier that the timing chain was worn.
then i had the chance testing the gearbox on the engine. so i turned the gearbox that have a weak reverse and no topgear, upside down.
and step by step in reverse order i was checking where and what i did wrong.
And exactly as you said. on the front servo release side i had not fitted the oil pipe correctly. i testet the gearbox on the engine.
and it reversed strong and did go into top gear.
so i took the chance and mounted the engine and gerarbox back in the car. and it now works exactly as it did before i put my sloppy fingers on it.
So again thanks to you Harvey and the rest out there for your help and advice,
cheers multi