# Ducato 5th gear



## fredroz (Jul 5, 2009)

This week on my way out my ducato 2.8 jumped out of 5th gear and now
will not go in all the other gears work fine 
As this happened to  someone Else to point me in the right direction


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## Wintermute (Jul 5, 2009)

Are there little bits of metal in the gearbox oil?  If you use 5th gear in lower speeds than on the motorway you can put excessive loads on the splines on the inside of the gear.  They eventually wear out.


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## simong (Jul 5, 2009)

first off welcome to the site. like Wintermute said, you need to get the gearbox oil checked, but by the sounds of things there's no point doing it as it's already stuffed it's self, unless you have a good garage that can competently rebuild gearboxes then it's a new gearbox as it could be a number of things from worn bearings to stripped splines on the shaft, and the only way to be 100% sure is to strip the box


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## Scanner (Jul 5, 2009)

Ouse Valley Autos at Warboys, Cambs (not a million miles from you, but the drive just feels like it) were doing one the other day when I was in there collecting my Ducato after having had a wheel bearing done.

They are Fiat Specialists and maintain a lot of local Ducato ambulances.

They were replacing 5th gear on a Swift m/home and can do it without taking the gearbox out - according to them it's a common fault if gearbox oil level is allowed to drop even the slightest amount.

Their personal view is that the recommended oil level is too low and it allows no room for error. They prefer to "overfill" a little and find it reduces problems.


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## Dezi (Jul 6, 2009)

Hi Freroz,

This happened to me a few years ago at about 65,000 miles. The Fiat 2.8 5th gear is simply a ( bolt-on ) gear.Jumping out is usually the first sign of its failure. Normally takes about half a day to change & cost - 4 years ago was £500.

In the meantime you can happily continue driving in 4th, but do NOT exceed 50 mph. 

Dezi


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## guerdeval (Jul 6, 2009)

Lots of adverts in the back of MMM  ,companies advertising cure for exactly this problem so it seems very common.


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## urbtaf (Jul 7, 2009)

Theres a problem like this on the Master van, the 5th gear is an addon to a 40 year old design and if the oil level drops it gets trashed.
I ran 3 of these as vans on distance work and my mechanic fitted an oil expantion tank to the gearbox, used to get a bit of oil dripping but never had any more trouble and those vans covered around 300000 miles each.


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## rommel (Jul 22, 2009)

*Ducato 5th Gear*

I had 5th gear go on my Hymer just befor Xmas we were travelling back from Germany on a motorway doing about 60 and it jumped out of 5th and refused to stay back in after that, I bought the new parts and decided to fit both gears , syncro hubs , baulk rings new nut and tap washer and oil, took about 2hrs once I had prized the plastic inner  mud guard away from the mastic that was holding it. The gear box oil was not low  and never had been, when I examined the old parts there was no visible difference between them and the new ones. I was a bit worried that this was not going to fix the problem , took it out for a test drive and bingo 5th gear worked fine . I have shown old parts to several mechanics I know and they can't tell me what is wrong with them. If I was doing it again I would just buy the hubs.


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## Boxerman (Jul 22, 2009)

Hi rommel,
what did it cost for the parts? did you have any indication - noises etc before it went?


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## rommel (Jul 23, 2009)

Because I was in a hurry I didn't shop around and paid 60p shy of £300 but found out from a mate that he could have got 30% off for trade discount. The synthetic oil was £11 a ltr alone.


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## rommel (Jul 23, 2009)

No indication whatsoever, just jumped out , no metal pieces in box.
I don't know if this helps but now I don't change up to 5th until doing 50mph, I doubt it but I am doing it anyway


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