Photos or diagrams of reverse lockout parts for GTI(?) transmission?

[OttoKad]

Hello, I recently bought a BX in the USA, and it's quite rough and needs some fixing! It's 19 TZI, and was swapped from automatic to manual from a GTI(?) at some point long ago in its life, and the transmission definitely has a couple quirks, but for now just focused on one thing:

I am trying to figure out what I'm missing to get the reverse lockout working, because 5th gear is very sloppy and doesn't like to return into neutral before grinding on reverse a little bit unless you move it a certain way. I've already addressed the spindle bushings under the shifter boots. While I know the actual issue with 5th gear lies elsewhere, does anyone have a better source for parts diagrams, or able to get a photo of what's underneath their shifter boots for the reverse lock-out? I potentially want to design and 3D print something if the part is hard to find, but I have no clue how its supposed to work and am hoping someone can be of some assistance lol

[Jaba]

There were two types of gearbox fitted to the BX. If your gearbox has the 5th gear directly above reverse then there is no reverse selection lock. The early boxes had reverse at the top left hand position and had a selection lock on the gear lever as pictured in your post.
Which type do you have?

[OttoKad]

Huh interesting. Mine has reverse below 5th, but has the spring collar on the lever, it just doesn't connect to anything.

[Jaba]

Yes you've got the wrong lever fitted there. You also might have wrong gearbox shift links too I suppose. Try removing the 5 gear link (the ball joints should not have play) and manually select and deselect 5th gear. If it feels vague compared to other gears then you can remove the end cover and see the 5th gear and selection mechanism to see what has gone wrong.

[OttoKad]

Been away from the car for a bit. Slight update, one bushing was loose, but manually moving the levers on the trans still felt sloppy. After fixing up the bushing and reconnecting everything, reverse is the only gear where everything is properly solid, whereas the other gears have varying levels of play and vagueness. First gear likes to grind and pop out occasionally, and fifth gear still has the issue of needing to be pulled to the left if I want to avoid a crunch into reverse.

It's probably due for a proper transmission inspection at the very least, and I'm sure I may have to drop it. Is there a good way to identify precisely what kind of transmission I may have installed? I'd think it's a BE3 given the 1.9 engine, but the the long longitudinal linkage looks similar to an MA transmission where there's a bit of a bend before connecting to the L bracket. I'm using the 205 as a reference and am not sure if BX linkages would be different, but from online reference images I don't think a straight linkage would work. I can provide more photos when I get a chance

[Russelltill]

On these B-Series 5-speeds, the reverse lockout is part of the shift mechanism rather than simply a missing piece under the boot, and the transmission uses a 5th/reverse shift rod with a cam-type lockout. Since yours has been converted from auto, I’d first verify that the correct shifter, lockout parts, springs/balls and linkage are actually present and adjusted correctly. The sloppy 5th/neutral movement could also point to wear in the shift mechanism or internal 5th/reverse components, so I’d check the related bushings, detents and Spherical Roller bearings before designing a replacement part. The factory parts breakdown does show wheel hub bearings and the 5th/reverse components separately, which may help identify exactly what is missing. If you can post a photo of what’s currently underneath the shifter boots, that would make it much easier to tell what you have versus what should be there.

[Jaba]

You have a BE3 box fitted but the gear lever is for a BE1 box because it has the reverse lock there. Your whole gearchange setup may therefore be the cause of the selection issue as the BE1 links are not the same length as BE3.
We need some fotos I guess to see exactly whats what. Peugeots did use the same gearbox.

[David]

Looking at the pictures, these gear linkages could be the later type too; I’ve seen 2 different types fitted to the BE3 gearboxes, the later type being very similar to these in the picture and the parts around the gear stick between the two are not compatible.

I’ve never seen the linkages for a BE1 box, so I can’t comment, but the two types of BE3 that I’ve seen had all the mountings different on the car, on the later one, the plastic surround went down the same as in the one in the picture but it had no lockout, it just sat over a piece of metal to stop the plastic turning. The slightly earlier one didn’t have that.

By the sounds of it, the sloppy 5th gear issue is common with the BE3 gearbox, if you hold them to the right when pulling from 5th gear then it’ll hold to the right and go straight into reverse, it’s nothing to do with the selector rods and they don’t have any kind of lockout like newer cars do.

I’ve rebuilt the gearbox in my car and it’s exactly the same, I think it’s how the selector forks are positioned in the top of the gearbox, 5th and reverse use 2 separate selector forks that overlap on the internal selector rod, so it could be that the selector rod gets stuck between them as you pull it out of 5th if you hold it to the right. There’s probably nothing that you can do besides trying a different gearbox if it’s really bad, otherwise just try not to hold it right as you’re pulling it from 5th gear.

Hope that helps.