Backing up without destroying the transmission

Never back up uphill or start very fast backing up! 2CV's with disc brakes have a severe problem: While backing up the collar for the center shifting fork twists off the gear assembly (see sketch).

The reason is that this collar was not tightened during production. Afterwards it is almost impossible to tighten it more. This requires disassembling the transmission. In this collar sits the shifting fork. When you back up very hard you put a high load on the transmission.



The gear assembly warps and the collar twists off the thread. The collar is secured with some punches but this cannot stand the force. Once the collar is twisted off completely the gear assembly will fall apart. Mostly this leaves the transmission in permanent 3rd gear.

The gears twist and cannot be put back together. Maybe you can manage to shift in another gear - a transmission in two gears at the same time - the transmission will block totally. To press the clutch won't help because it is not the motor what blocks!

A repair is very tricky. In most cases the transmission will need to be replaced. This is the reason why it is almost impossible to get hold of a good used transmission with disc brakes.

Due to Citroën it is impossible to fix this problem. So far I have fixed about 20 transmissions with this problem, mostly with the transmission in the car. But this requires a good knowledge of this problem and how to fix it.