Letters in April MMM

[Basil]

Hello All, Perhaps its me, but have you read the letter, A Tale Of Two Cities on Page9 of this months issue. Now this is singing the praises of a Fiat repair company in Wolverhampton, now I am assuming that the vehicle is Sevel based as it is a Fiat repair centre. My questions would be why did the box have to come out? Why did it take five days to do a two hour job? How much was Dave Reeves MBE overcharged for repairing a faulty fifth gear synchro? Talk about fool and his money. Interestingly in Interchange page 234 heading Fifth Gear, George Collings tells someone that they have been wrongly informed and describes the same problem and cure. One further question should the Editor have spotted this incorrect Letter so that anybody who is unaware of the problem does not go to the company in Wolverhampton and get fleeced? Just my opinion.

[Clive]

I am not a sevel owner or a fan BUT I believe that the 5th gear job is a 2 hour one if done soon as it starts to play up. If its left all the swarf gets into the main gearbox and its then a major stripdown job and loads of dosh. So perhaps its best not to be to hasty in judgement.

[Basil]

Having had this job done on a friends last year, after it being driven from Switzerland in fourth gear, at a local to me gearbox specialist where the syncro hub and fifth gear set were changed, I would totally refute what you are saying Clive. This discussion was had with the gear box specialist who has done many of these, particularly for the local main agent who could not cope with the work at the time. The question of swarf left in the box was raised and was conclusively proved unfounded in my judgement, I am a qualified Tech Eng. The referred to vehicle has now covered a further 5000miles with no further problem.

[Clive]

OK Basil, I also am a qualified now part time retired engineer but don,t have intermediate knowledge of the Sevel equipment. I was purely passing on information available on several other web sites about the gearbox problems. You might also read the last two editions of MMM and in one of them I believe the Interchange Editor George Collings also gave the same opinion. But don,t ask me to say which page please. Whatever, its always easy to knock (and some deserve to be knocked) when only armed with part of the information. Go in peace! C.