A Fully Functioning Lego Gearbox?!
Ford, Toyota, Renault, Audi – we could go on. At NWT, we have worked with gearboxes and transmission from every manufacturer, covering thousands of models.
However, we watched a video recently of a transmission from a make we have never worked with – well, not professionally anyway!
The video in question was of one of the most ingenious gearboxes we have ever seen. It was your standard manual – five forward gears with one reverse – only with a huge twist.
This gearbox and complete transmission system was made entirely from Lego.
What we perhaps loved most of all was the gearstick, a fully working gear lever that changes between the gears. You even get a bit of a grinding sound if the change isn’t smooth enough.
A full 10-minute video of the build and testing is available above. In the video you can see the issues the build team had to overcome, including some challenging issues getting the gears to fit and the gearstick to work. We won’t give too much away, but the issue of the gearstick not returning to the central position is solved simply by an elastic band.
Testing is thorough, in fact so thorough that a shift is attempted straight from fifth into reverse. The transmission withstands this change; it isn’t one we’d recommend trying on your car.
Please watch the video – it is great entertainment and a wonderful example of ingenuity.
We watched it with a professional eye too. We can fix gearboxes across all makes and models, but what would we make of this Lego model?
It would certainly test us. It has the functionality of a gearbox and so is recognisable in many ways, but the limitations of Lego parts mean a lot of creativity is required – and clearly a huge degree of very specific Lego knowledge. It also seems you need a pretty extensive box full of spare parts.
Given time, we think we could have a good go at making a working Lego gearbox, but then it wouldn’t be as good as the one in the video. It also might lead to a backlog in more standard gearboxes waiting to be fixed!
What the experiment does show though is the continuing allure of the manual gearbox. Nobody is queuing up to see videos of automatic Lego gearboxes.
ABOUT NORTH WEST TRANSMISSIONS
At North West Transmissions we repair gearboxes or source replacement with guaranteed refurbished units.
A family-run business, we have a truly superb reputation, this shown by our 4.9 out of 5 average rating from dozens of reviews on Google.
All reconditioned gearboxes come with guarantees for 12 months or 12,000 miles while reconditioned automatic units come with a re-manufactured torque converter that has a lifetime guarantee.
Our technicians are all highly skilled with vast experience in reconditioning and repairing all units – importantly their efficiency helps cut down the price of repairs and so too the cost.
Gearbox problems are all-too common. If you find yourself in need of a repair or reconditioned unit, that often being the more economical option in the long term, please contact us.
Call us on 0151 933 0257 or use our Contact Form.
