Hello everyone,
I have just brought a semi auto 3 speed trike from Germany i live in the Uk by the way.
anyway it road home great untill i got back to England, I got stuck in a traffic jam for 2 hours and left the trike in 3rd gear nearly all the time(stupid or what) with my foot on the brake.
Now it wont select gears and screams terribly i have looked at the servo linkage and played with it but it doesnt seem to make any difference.
I have found a wire loose by the coil but am not sure if this is anything to do with it. Has anyone any ideas or a wiring diagram.
My life will not be worth living if i don't fixit as my good lady wife is gonna kill me as she thought it was a bad idea to buy a trike from abroad in the first place....any help gratefully recieved Marc :oops:
As far as screaming, do you mean squeals after its in gear or grinds while trying to go in gear? Grinding would mean the servo system isn't working. screaming or squealing would sound like the clutch slipping.
The loose wire may be the power wire going to your clutch servo control. Check that one wire goes to power and the other still goes to your shifter.
Start the trike, with someone on the brakes have them push down on the shifter. Look at the vacuum module on the drivers side( for a US car) of the transmission. If the the arm is pulling the clutch in the the servo is working.
If this isn't the problem get a Bently manual and go through the clutch adjustment procedures.
Check the level of the ATF fluid, if its low the torque converter will not operate correctly.
If all of this works then its probably a bad clutch disc. The bently manual covers replacing this pretty good.
I did'nt like hearing that... A german car mechanic years ago told me that the clutch in an autostick never wears out because the torque converter does all the slipping for it... Of course that theory would be out the window if the all the freeplay was allowed to go away and did'nt get corrected.
From what I understand, that old German mechanic is correct. The clutch doesn't wear out anywhere nearly as fast in an autostick.
By leaving it in 3rd the whole time, you may have overheated the ATF, torque converter, and flex plate, which can damage those last two items. The trike builder must have skipped putting in the ATF overheat warning light.
Wiring diagrams:
http://66.34.72.138/wiring/
Well, Im the builder, and this is my 3rd one. I don't need the warning light because the trike only weighs 1080 lbs full of fuel with full saddle bags. Even pulling the trailer, this thing does'nt even know it's being used. I quit smelling the fluid a long time ago as it always smelled like it was still in the bottle..... By the way, I get 28 mpg in town 32 mpg on the highway, and it will do well over 90 mph. On a test, I shut it off as the speedo was repidly passing 90 as I figured that was good enough, and I did'nt want to get nailed for speeding. Actually, with the engine out in free space on the trike, it runs alot cooler too. Im addicted to these things, and to build this one, I cut the suspension out of a very clean 74 I picked up with a bad torque converter leak. My theory is, that if you start with an ugly bug, no one will be willing to take the rest of it away for the body. Alot of my friends thought I was nuts to destroy that bug until the Trike was finished. Now everyone has approved of the project. Especially me...
By the way, I tried to post some pics of my Trike, but I hav'nt seen my autostick yet... Anyone know why that is ???
OK, the screaming could be a vacume leak, and the loose wire at the coil may be the power wire to the clutch vacume selonoid. Anyway, vacume leaks can whistle... When you put pressure against the shifter, does the diaphram pull on the clutch release arm??? (key should have to be on for this test... Lets start there... Remember, with the key on, there should be power to one of the wires on the vacume selonoid. The other terminal goes to the grounding switch in the shifter.
i stripped the box down and found the problem the clutch release shaft had a big grove worn in the arms about 5mm deep were it pulled on the thrust bearing dogs and the dogs on the bearing one side has snapped of a little causing it to dig into the clutch release shaft :D does anyone know were i might get a new release shaft from in the UK ? or might i be able to weld em up and grind it out?
Marcfxr