Erf es6
 

Hello everyone. Thank you for admitting me to your forum. I am fairly new to truck ownership, but have recently aquired an ERF ES6 fitted with a HIAB081 knuckle boom crane to use as a yard crane. I intend sometime in the future to shorten the chassis to make it easier to manouvre in yard. My question today is something else however. When starting off from stationary, when I depress the clutch I have to hold the clutch down for more than 10 - 12 seconds before I can engage gear. The gearbox is a 6 speed Eaton. The engine is a 6 litre 6 cylinder Cummins. Once on the move, upshifting is fine but it is impossible to downshift on the move. There is no gringing/grating/rasping of gears, simply the gear lever will not engage the gear, it resists my hand pressure. Is this a problem anyone on here recognises ?. Thank you in anticipation of some advise.

Some vehicles were equipped with a clutch brake which operated on the gearbox input shaft when the clutch pedal was fully depressed.
This 'brake' needed to be adjusted (and occasionally replaced) - a small diameter plate with friction material.

Having said that, I believe that the Eaton 6 speed is a synchromesh box, and clutch brakes are usually for non-synchro boxes.
Your problem might be due to worn or damaged synchronisers on the gears.

Have you tried double-declutching when down-shifting with a blip of throttle in 'neutral' (ie with the clutch engaged - pedal up - as you pass through the gate).

Another possibility is a fault with the main clutch - particularly if the engine has a 'pot-type' flywheel. If pieces of the clutch lining come off and wedge between the pressure plate and the surrounding flywheel, then the clutch can drag and cause difficult gearshifts - in the worst case it is impossible to release (pedal down) the clutch though upshifts can sometimes be achieved.