Lenco / Reverse Lever Direction?

We have just started our car up today and discovered that when the Lenco reverse lever is pushed forward/ the car goes forward. When it is pulled back/ the car goes into reverse. I was taught that it should be the opposite way in order to keep the transmission from jumping out of forward during a hard launch and run. (Hawley School) Does anyone have the same set up and is it safe to operate this way? Getting ready to test and don't want to find out the hard way!!
TA/FC #137 .Thanks again.........Brownman.

 

Bowman if you want the lever to go the other way turn the reverser on the transmission 180degrees this will solve your problem. mike

 

Also you might have to make anew lever and make sure to get the detents right. mike

 

Mike.first...Thanks for the help. Your telling me that the reverser can be attached in any direction? Second...is there any harm in running the way we have it until we pull it apart? I'm assuming that the Reverser is a self contained unit that I can remove and spin around as a complete unit, with out tearing it apart. Brownman

 

Bowman that is correct but you must change th sprag holder so that the oil hole is at the bottom. I dont see any reason that you cant run it like you have it unless you bump the lever.

 

I asked the same question...Lenco's response was once the gear is loaded, you can't pull it out of gear much less it fall out. So I left mine forward is forward, reverse is reverse.

 

When running our TAD a few years back we went through nearly a whole season with transmission grief. About 100 feet or so out it would "slip" into a sort of neutral position, breaking the transmission, and if you didn't catch it right away, the motor went to the moon (which it did a couple times) and bends all the valves. What we ended up doing is building a sort of lock-out lever that once the car is back and ready to stage we flipped to block the reverse arm from moving, never had a problem since.

 

Better check the hole in your transmission blanket for the reverse lever hole location before you go through the trouble of rotating the reverser around.

You shouldn't have any problem with the level the way you have it.

Another thought I've heard is that if you were to hit the wall head on hard with seat belt stretch and/or loose belts you may or may not become an opera singer (soprano). The thrust forward by the heavy impact could smash your manhood into the lever if it's back rather than forward.

Probably a fable, who knows.

[ May 18, 2004, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Randy G. ]

 

Randy G most blankets made of late have double rev. openings. Especialy the best. Taylor

 

I recently got a brand new B&J blanket from him and it had one hole for the reverser.

 

Thanks for the education. I think I'm going to install some type of lock out device to keep it from coming backwards. The kid would like to keep his personal equipment in tact. Me.....I'm too damm old to use it anyway! With any luck, we can get this thing off the jacks and see if it can cover the 1320 in style! Thanks again...Brownman and the FNG's

 

You won't have any problem with the reverser the way it is. We run ours the same way. It will not jump out of gear.

 

There's no reason to have the lever between your legs, if you're worried about it. Just mount it on one side or the other between the upper and lower rails. It's out of the way and less likely to be accidentally moved, too.

 

Oops. Just realized you're talking about a FC. I was thinking "dragster". My bad.