FORD MAVERICK GEAR SELECTION

Sounds like my Mav when the Pivit ball snapped in the bell housing , funny enough , it happened about 3 weeks after i fitted a new clutch lol .

have a look inside the bell housing . There is a pivit point for your fork. It either is broken or needs to be adjusted further out to give you more throw in the thrust.

Now you need to feel it , not look at it . By eye it may look ok , when you wiggle it , it will be a diffrent story.

Might need to put a clutch slave cylinder kit in. My brother's 1981 MQ had exactly the same symptoms you described. Bleeding the system worked for a a bit, but air was getting in through the clutch slave cylinder seals which had gone hard. Recon with a kit was only about $30 or so (DIY of course), and fixed the problem. Don't know how much for yours.
Cheers
John

Definitely sounds like clutch adjustment or one of the above.
If it was a Holden for example, you would hear it "crunch" when you select reverse.
However the Mav gearbox has synchro on reverse which hides the problem of a clutch not disconnecting fully. Although the Mav gearbox is about as indestructible as you can get, a clutch not disconnecting fully won't do it any good.
Jack up the back wheels and see if they'll turn when in gear (engine running) with the clutch fully depressed- if so then there's your problem. (Be carefull- it has a limited slip differential)
Cheers and happy new year.

Do you have the correct grade of oil in the gear box?
If the oil is not as per spec this can make shifting very difficult as the syncros will not work as they should and you do say that it shifts fine with a double clutch
Ray

thanks for those replies gents,it is definitely harder to find reverse gear and 1st gear when the vehicle is stationary so will follow up on all those suggestions.the car hasnt done many k's over last couple of years and may have been sitting around a while so slave cylinder seals may definitely need doing as well.
cheers and thanks
morto

Take it back to whoever fitted the clutch and tell them to fix it.

My lil old mitsi colt had the same problem. Turned out to be oil related. Wound up putting some of that mega buck redline gear oil in it. That was 80000k's ago and still going strong. Try double clutching to see if that improves things.

Try replacing the gearbox oil with Castrol VMX80 - about $26 for 4 liters which will leave you with a little left over. Makes a huge difference over normal 90 wt gear oil. Also check your adjustment. The earlier post about jacking up the rear wheels is a good idea due to sycro on reverse.

G'day Pretender and Others,

I may have a similar problem with my 92 Diesel Patrol. I purchased this vehicle recently and as part of its first service I had all the fluids replaced with top of the range stuff.

My problem is that sometimes (say 10-20%) when I change down from 4th to 3rd, or 3rd to 2nd, it doesn't want to go. I either have to force it or double-clutch. Changing up and down in other gears poses no problems at all.

The funny thing is that for the most part there is no problem at all and the gear changes are very smooth.

It may be my imagination, but perhaps the trouble occurs when I try to change down gears when I am going too fast. It would also seem to me that the clutch engages too early - ie friction point at obout 1 inch from fully depressed. I'm not sure if this is a problem, and if it is I'm surprised they didn't pick it up with the service.

I am not sure if this is the same problem as yours, but I'll let you know if I find out whats causing it.

Cheers

Jono