Detente Spring In Transmission Pan

[MICAH1]

I am replacing the gasket and oil in my 1973 GT standard transmission, and when I began to check the container with the old oil I found this spring. Checked my manual and did not see anything like this that should have dropped down when the bottom pan was removed. I had the clutch replaced in April of this year and the folks there said that they did check my trans, and replaced the oil. I didn't have a pan gasket at the time so the old one was kept on after oil replacement..... Before I continue and install the new gasket, is there anyone who has done this before seen this spring when the bottom was undone, or did the guys at AAMCO try to pull one on me???

[jeff denton]

It's a detent spring. There should be a ball and a seat there, too. Do a search for Detent Spring and you'll see it all. This comes up quite often. Every time someone pulls the pan, in fact!

[tekenaar]

Originally Posted by MICAH1 I am replacing the gasket and oil in my 1973 GT standard transmission, and when I began to check the container with the old oil I found this spring. Checked my manual and did not see anything like this that should have dropped down when the bottom pan was removed. I had the clutch replaced in April of this year and the folks there said that they did check my trans, and replaced the oil. I didn't have a pan gasket at the time so the old one was kept on after oil replacement..... Before I continue and install the new gasket, is there anyone who has done this before seen this spring when the bottom was undone, or did the guys at AAMCO try to pull one on me???

. . . that's the spring to the detent ball for the gear selector mechanism and goes up into the transmission at the right side at about the cross selector shaft . . . there is a steel ball at the top of this spring (detent).

[MICAH1]

I did the search and now know what to do with the spring, also saw the ball but it did not fall out. Now when I searched on "detent' the thred also mentioned a "shoe" that goes in the hole after the spring... did not see that!!!

[timemachine]

You may find the ball wedged in its hole on the passenger side of the gear box. you can poke it out with a screwdriver to clean it.

I've come across a few gearboxes serviced by POs that don't have the little shoe that goes under the spring because it became lost when people weren't looking for it when they serviced the gearbox (in the same way you did).

As long as the shoe isn't floating around in the gearbox (very unlikely if you didn't find it on the ground, attached to the magnet or stuck to the case) you won't actually need to worry about it, since the base only adds about 1/16" to the height of the assembly. (It is round and the width of the spring, smaller than a small button battery.) The spring and ball bearing by themselves will perform their function as intended with no harm to anything else. Just insert the ball, then the spring, and hold it in place as you push the pan back onto the gearbox.

I like that Opel stuck a magnet in the pan but would have preferred it had they moved it over and added a drain plug.

Jim

[MICAH1]

Thanks for clearing this up... I'll look again for the plug and if I don't find it will continue the gasket install.

[MICAH1]

Everything is back and in place... Forgot that I purchased a opel transmission at Carlisle, so I took the bottom off and used the plug that embeds behind the detent spring. Used a little bearing grease to hold the ball, spring, and shoe in place while I attached the bottom cover to the transmission. Worked great!!!

Thanks a bunch Jeff, Jim, and Otto.