5 speed gear lever adjustment

Hi,

I cant move my gear lever enough to engage 5th gear. The part of the gear lever under the car is touching and not letting the gear lever move over enough to engage 5th. Any ideas? Once photobucket decides to work i'll upload a picture of where the gear lever is touching. If I disconnect the linkage I can engage 5th gear by hand from the gearbox in the engine bay.

 

When you've put it in 5th by hand get someone to hold the lever in the cabin in the 5th position whilst you reconnect the linkage.

You can get a bit more movement by adjusting the 2 bolts which hold the gearstick to the car floor.

Thanks both for your help I will give this a try.

Also how can I check that I have the correct gear lever / linkage? as my car used to be a 1.1 but was bought with a 1.5 engine and 5 speed box in although 5th gear has never worked from the gear lever so I'm just wondering is there another issue other than just the adjustment

Ah…. I believe the steering rack is different between the small block and big block cars. There is a bracket on the rack used by the gear selection mechanism, is the rack still the original small block?

Not sure if the cabin lever is the same or different. The big block 4 and 5 speed mechs are different. There may also be an issue if the relocated engine mount is not in the right place.

Finally are you sure it's a 5 speed box, not a 4 (or a 3+E)?. The 5's have a round green metal 'lid' on the end of the box when looking under the wheel arch. 

Have you got some pictures of what you have fitted?

Thanks everyone for your help, I didn't have the correct 5 speed gear select lever, all sorted now

I have a similar issue, my 1.8gti has a 5 speed box which used to work fine however after having the car laid up for 4 years it now will not engage 5th so much so when I tried after getting the car on the road again I broke the linkage trying. That's since been repaired but still have no 5th. Is there a common fault that prevents 5th being engaged within ge box? Or do I need a specialist to strip and rebuild? Any suggestions welcome

have a look at the linkages in the engien bay while someone tries the gears, make sure non of the linkages are split or have excessive play. its possible the gearstick base plate was from a 4 speed though, if so you;'ll need to modify it