Selecting reverse

[ethel]

A couple of times I've had a severe crunch and horrible grinding of gears when selecting reverse - other times it works fine.
I was wondering (and this sounds daft) how do you select reverse gear? My handbook says , 'move the gear lever sharply to the extreme right and rearwards', but if I look at the ends of the selector rods where the bottom of the gear lever goes, the recess in the reverse selector rod is higher than the forward gears so I'm wondering if lifting the gear lever will ensure it goes all the way across to reverse as I'm thinking the grinding maybe because the lever is trying to move the 3 -4 selector rod at the same time as reverse.
Alternatively, has anyone had any success adjusting the pins either side of the gear lever pivot and can tell me how they adjust on a later car and wahat effect they have.
Thanks,
John.

[martin]

Some moderns now actually have synchro on reverse, bit of a luxury. With older cars I used to select first gear before selecting reverse as a matter of course, that slows everything down before the change, although almost any gear may achieve this. Give it a go. Martin.

[ethel]

Some moderns now actually have synchro on reverse, bit of a luxury. With older cars I used to select first gear before selecting reverse as a matter of course, that slows everything down before the change, although almost any gear may achieve this. Give it a go. Martin.

Martin, for those of us who had a Herald as a first car, synchro on first is a luxury
Sometimes stirring the stick through a few of the forward gears does help to remind the gearbox what it's there for, but could it be that after that I just move the lever more decisively to the right?
Perhaps I've got to let it happen a few more times to work out a pattern of when it occurs.
John.

[martin]

Before I was an Examiner, I worked for BSM, giving lessons on a Herald, the reverse detent was the first thing to go, shooting backwards in traffic became commonplace - great fun - not. The Rover P6 used to crunch into reverse all the time, a mate had 3 V8s and they all did it, never did find the reason. Martin.