Sloppy Gearstick!

Last night my gearstick suddenly went sloppy and dropped down into its gaitor, I assume a piece of the linkage has broken. The problem seems be where the stick must join the first part of the linkage (stick is sloppy and has dropped down) with a bit of fiddling I can find all gears.

Haven't had a chace to properly look at it, but can anyone tell from my description what is the most likely part to have failed, all forward parts of linkage weher replaced last year? Can this be accessed from inside the car (by removing gaitor and metal plate around stick base)?

Cheers

sounds like in car bit mate, the box/bush at end of your gearstick, if you press down and it doesnt spring back then it will be that bit (like when you select reverse), sorry for shite explanation but dont know the names of any of the parts, selector could have come lose i guess (i call it the selector i mean the thing at end of rod that runs from car bit) but if you have no spring more likely to be top bit but im no mechanic,
i do have a newish box thing (the in car bit) if you get stuck though,
cheers,
paul

It will be the circlip that holds the spring in place on the lever shaft. When it comes off the lever drops down as you describe. Take the gator off and you will see a recess where it goes. Pinch the circlip together more and it should stay in place.

Dan

Cheers, just had a look cannot see any circlip? The plastic ball appears in two halves (is this right) the lower half appears a bit mashed and has abit broken out of it. Anyone know where I can buy replacement bits :dontknow: .

Cheers

There should be a groove on the stick that stops the lever falling through the floor. This in turn allows the spring, that you feel when reverse is selected, to press against it and maintain the levers height in the car. have another look and make sure that the spring in pressing against something or you will be left with a short stubby lever and a home made plough under the car!

Dan

Yep, dan is dead right - this happened on mine when I re-did all linkage parts including bearing plate at bottom of gear lever but didn't bother with a new circlip.

buy a new circlip!!

left with a short stubby lever and a home made plough under the car

  thats what I've got! Sorry if I'm being thick, but where does the clip go? When I pull the lever up to what feels like the right height a plastic grooved shroud around the gearstick becomes visable, should the clip go here? Can i buy just the clip?

Thanks

The clip should go about 1/3 of the way up the lever. Pull the lever up to the right height and the spring should mark roughly where the clip goes. The indent is only small and the circlip some times gets stretched when doing the linkage with the removal process. I had to squeeze mine a bit to get it to grip again but the 'Mark 1 law' could kick at any time and it could just fold in on itself. My betting is that a motor factors would have replacements as it can't be a specialist part.

Dan

Ah right, my spring has dropped down through the plate so doesn't appear when you pull the lever up. I assume the spring should be over the ribbed plastic sleeve just above the ball on the stick?

Cheers

Took it all apart - the ball which the stick slots through had broken up and come apart. The spring I could see was originally inside the two halves of the ball, circlip etc was still intact. Brought the GSF kit, fitted it up and alls good now .

Cheers