Sticky Gear Change

[Scorpiorefugee]

A few days ago on an early morning start the gear stick felt unusually stiff. After a few miles it spontaneously went back to normal. Today, returning from the shops (about 2 miles) half way back it suddenly went stiff again.

The effect is like stirring a bowl of thick treacle, no roughness or crunching.

Any suggestions please before I wheel it round to the garage. I don't think i've missed a week for several months! :unsure:

[seatkid]

Check the usual suspects. Cable ends slipping out of their sockets. The bolt on the gearbox selector lever. etc etc I think probably in the FAQ's

[alan_131]

Like seatkid said.... to look on the bright side, you may have the wd40 fix....

[Scorpiorefugee]

Thanks fellers. That sounds encouraging. I didn't realise it was a cable system. Strangely, I've just been out and given a quick waggle (the gear stick :) ) and it suddenly freed off again. I think I'll still let the trusty garage man do the checking 'cos my missus has banned me from getting underneath lately. I was a bit worried it might be the gearbox as my luck with it this year has not been too good.

I'm not over impressed with WD40 as a freeing agent as it is primarily a water dispersant which leaves a stiff wax residue. I recently used it to free off a pressure sensor in my CH boiler and in less than 24 hours the wax had set and it stopped working and the same thing seems to happen with door locks. I found olive oil fixed the boiler but use spray chain oil for most other things that need lubricating. It has the characteristic of clinging but not setting.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Scorpiorefugee

[gregers]

silicone spray is a lot better, :)

[alan_131]

I'd agree that wd40 probably not the best long term lube, it was what I had to hand and I wanted something that would wash the gunge/mud whatever it was off as well as lubricate.

 

If it is the external part of the selector gunged up, you can reach this without getting under the car or disconnecting any pipework, at least on my mk1 110... Quite good access to spray by moving the expansion bottle, fuel filter and battery/plastics. If you need to get the selector out, then you have to get under the car to drop the undertray. I was hoping to get away with supporting the gearbox from above, by replacing the standard bolts that hold it to the battery tray mount with much longer ones, but didn't need to go this far so don't know if it would have worked. I couldn't actually see much of the mechanism, but worked by feel.

 

Alternatively, without removing anything, I can get a hand on the selector from the front of the engine and change gear by holding the large round rubber lump on the selector. I would think (though I haven't tried this, because I was getting ready to take the selector off the box and had already moved stuff as above) it might be possible to get the cleaning agent/lubricant of your choice in the same way. If the linkage is ok, moving the selector under the bonnet moves the gear lever to match.

 

Hope this is your problem - I'd guess everything else is harder....

Edited August 26, 2012 by alan_131

[Scorpiorefugee]

Thanks Alan. That's very encouraging. I'll have a grope when it eventually stops raining. My main concern was that It might be a sign of something drastic but the other put off is that the problem completely disappeared before I could investigate it.

[alan_131]

Hope sticky external selector is the problem. The loose/missing bolt sounds not too bad - and I don't think it is, from posts here, if you can lay your hands on the bolt either before it falls out completely or by fishing inside the box. Problem comes when it's missing and you can't find it - IIRC one member said the bolt came out right through the side of the gearbox....