Gears problem

[coolchris]

Hi guys.i have a problem with my 2.5.Was out on sunday in the car pulled up to a set of lights put in first and heard a clonk.thought nowt of it but when drove away car was in third not first.Could only engage 3rd 4th and 5th gears plus gearstick had gone completely slack.managed to get home and had my mechanic take a look has been found to be the coupling that the rose joint of the gear lever that fits into has come off the chassis.Now my mechanic makes out that it will be a pig of a job to do does anyone have experience of doing the job and can it be done without the middle section of the undertray coming off? he has to weld this coupling/bracket back onto the chassis im just a bit twitchy as going to iow on fri evening and was really looking forward to taking the car.any advice or comments would be great

cheers Chris

[mgbond]

coolchris said:

Hi guys.i have a problem with my 2.5.Was out on sunday in the car pulled up to a set of lights put in first and heard a clonk.thought nowt of it but when drove away car was in third not first.Could only engage 3rd 4th and 5th gears plus gearstick had gone completely slack.managed to get home and had my mechanic take a look has been found to be the coupling that the rose joint of the gear lever that fits into has come off the chassis.Now my mechanic makes out that it will be a pig of a job to do does anyone have experience of doing the job and can it be done without the middle section of the undertray coming off? he has to weld this coupling/bracket back onto the chassis im just a bit twitchy as going to iow on fri evening and was really looking forward to taking the car.any advice or comments would be great

cheers Chris

I was wondering when this would happen to someone else. Years ago I started having a real problem getting into gear. Basically the gear leaver had gotten so loose it wouldn't go in gear. Basicall the gear leaver is bolted to the tunnel and the nuts are covered by the plastic gear surround bit. I made a plate up to go across and bolted the leaver to it. even thats starting to get weak but has lasted a good few years.

So I would suggest having a look at that option.

Bondy

[coolchris]

was it a fairly straight forward job to do Martin?.what did you have to do to get at it

cheers Chris

[mgbond]

coolchris said:

was it a fairly straight forward job to do Martin?.what did you have to do to get at it

cheers Chris

If it is the same as what happened to me then as I said it was just a simple case of cutting out a bit of metal to fit in place you could do it yourself no problem.

Bondy

[Jim O.]

Pretty much the same thing happened to one of the M12s that we were working on. The gear shift lever is attached to the car via a rod end (heim joint, rose joint) that's threaded into a bit of angle, which is bolted to the top of the tunnel. In our case, the angle was bolted to a plate that was just tack-welded into an opening in the top of the tunnel. The tack-welds broke, and the plate came loose. To fix it, we removed the seats for more working room, and removed the padded console on top of the tunnel (remove the gear shift knob inside the car. Then, remove the two vent panels on the bottom of the car - 4 nuts in the tunnel that are accessible through the holes covered by the vents hold the console in place. If you have the knee pad on the side of the tunnel, remove that, too. Once again, nuts inside the tunnel accessible through the vent openings.). Peel the carpet out of the way. Cut out the old plate, and clean up the opening. Then we fabricated a new plate, out of thicker material, and carefully TIG welded it into place. After tacking it in place, we ran a continuous bead around the seam, so it won't tear loose again. Naturally, we had to be careful not to melt or set anything on fire - that's why we used the TIG, instead of MIG or any other type of welding. After it was welded in, we gave it a shot of paint so it won't rust, bolted the shifter back in place, and put everything else back together. No need to remove the floor - everything was accessible through the vent holes, or from inside the passenger compartment.

[2.5bluenob]

where the gear stick is fixed on to the top of the tunnel my car, the tunnel was ripping and i was having trouble getting 1st & 5th. i just made a metal shim to strengthen it. And its still holding up two years later.

[mgbond]

2.5bluenob said:

where the gear stick is fixed on to the top of the tunnel my car, the tunnel was ripping and i was having trouble getting 1st & 5th. i just made a metal shim to strengthen it. And its still holding up two years later.

So I wasn't alone then.