BX gearboxes? I used to be the world's expert........

[Anonymous]

Nowt much going on in the BX world at the moment, so I thought I'd share this tale:

Way back in the late 80's, a mechanic at the Citroen dealership where I worked had just finished a 1st service on the then new BX 17 TD (turbo diesel)....

On return from the roadtest, he noted that on setting off there was a faint grinding noise for the 1st few yards.

After investigation, it was obviously coming from the gearbox.

So he stripped it down a number of times and couldn't find anything, so for some reason he ordered a 1st/2nd gear assembly. On roadtest the 'box now had a distinctive LOUD whine in all the gears.

At this point I was handed the job. It turned out that the new parts were for a non-turbo 'box and the gear tooth count was different (but amazingly the 'box still worked).

New & correct bits cured the whine but the crunch remained.

Anyway, to cut a very long story short after much discussion with Citroen UK's Tech Dept. (who couldn't come up with an answer) and after a VERY lot of gearbox overhauls, I finally deduced that when engaging 1st, reverse was stilll very slightly still engaged and the 'box was trying to lock up until the forward movement threw the reverse idler out of its partial engagement. A new reverse selector was all that it needed......

A couple of weeks later I went on a transmissions course run by Citroen UK.

As part of the practical session the instructor strips down a BE series gearbox and spreads the (many) bits out on the work bench and picks on
on of the mechanics and tells them to now reassemble it..... Everyone laughs as its a tall order to put together a pile of bits that someone else has created.
Obviously I was the one chosen for this formidable task.
However I had just spent the last month ENDLESSLY stripping/rebuilding such a gearbox.
I was the world's expert on the 5-speed BE type 'box!
The instructor was AMAZED at my apparent superhuman mechanical aptitude as I confidently resurrected the pile of bits into a (working) component.
I should also add that I (used!!) to look like I was about seventeen-years-old in those days..... So the instructor thought I was an apprentice whos only skills lie in brewing & sweeping up! I was actually in my mid-twenties....

What he didn't realise was I simply knew the task inside-out as I had just done the same task at least FOURTEEN TIMES in the very recent past!!!!!
I had lived and breathed the bloody things for a seeming eternity.
I don't think there's a moral to this story, unlesss anyone knows otherwise? Ian

[Vanny]

"familiarity breeds content"

I dunno, that was the best i could come up with. Sounds like it was a proper project and a bit of a personal vendetta against the fault! I might have loved to be another one of the techs in the lecture when you pissed all over the skills of the instructor, i bet you rebuilt it faster than he could have

[Mike E (uk)]

I hope you did not tell him why you knew the 'box so well.

He would be telling classes for years after how this amazing lad put the thing together effortlessly!



Mike

[iain a]

oooo...i got a gearbox that needs a recon........

[ollie]

I was just thinking that! but it can crunch a little longer

Own story involves our university "Technical hands on course" where the engineering students where meant to pick up some practical skills ...HoHo...
Anyway
As i was allready well thru my first few cars and rebuilds I spent little time learning how to build an engine and went outside with some borrowed tools to change the brakes on the BX! and when everyone else was learning to Arc weld pigeon poo, I was quietly left in another room to play with the TIG set instead, they probaly thought me rather cocky, but then, I was

[iain a]

mmmmm...and some welding also....