Carefully Synchronizing a Mark II Transmission

The Accident Continued -

I signed a released after it appeared the body work of my little red Triumph Spitfire was taken care of. Shortly after that I had transmission problems.

I had four in the floor. The gears no longer seemed synchronized. They would clank and bang when I tried to change gears – sometimes I could change them and sometimes I couldn’t.

I carried the car to a Triumph dealership and another time to a transmission shop. Neither could repair it.

Then one day after work I was stopped at a red light on Bolton Road in Atlanta, in front of a Sinclair Station and I could not get the car out of neutral to go on. Luckily, the car was light. I pushed it in the Sinclair Station parking lot.

There were two men working there, co-owners. They were both drunk. They said they would look at it. I spent the next several hours standing over them watching them mumble, curse, when something didn’t fit like it was suppose to, and then slip off to have another drink.

Finally the oldest man, probably in his late 50s told the other one what he needed was a coat hangar. They went inside to the coat rack and got one and by cutting it and bending it into an odd-shape and inserting it down a certain way they corrected the problem.

They didn’t want much money – whatever ever the price was I gladly paid. I think it was about the price of a pint of Southern Comfort.

I had no more transmission problems after that.