Re:116 shift linkage problem

[Bruce Murray <bmurray@xxxxxxx>]

>Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 03:12:39 -0800
>From: "Paul Irvine" <pi@domain.elided>
>Subject: 116 shift linkage problem
>
>Coming home from work last night I got off the freeway and when I pulled
>away from the light the car was in 3rd instead of 1st. So I put it in 1st
>but it was still in 3rd. The shifter flops freely from left to right weather
>it's in gear or not and I can only catch 3rd and 4th - didn't try 5th or
>reverse.
>
>Anybody know what happened? Obviously something in my shift linkage has come
>apart but I haven't had a chance to look underneath it yet. It actually
>snowed here today! - not normal.
>
>

Paul doesn't say what year his car is and he may have already been given
the right answer and or fixed the problem.

My possibly relevant experience is as folows:-

I had a similar problem just after I had been working on the gearshift
mechanism of my 86 GTV6.

In my case a newly fitted roll pin had dropped out of the shift rod which
part is external to the gearbox and relatively easy to get to.  I had had a
bad time removing the original pin and replaced it with a new one plus
NeverSeez. 

What happened was that once the pin drops out the shifter rod will slide
and can only push the selector rod toward 3rd, 1st or 5th. To engage the
other gears, it has to pull on the selector rod which it can't do without
the pin in place. Luckily when you try and select 2,4, or reverse the
shifter rod does not disengage from the selector shaft and so it makes
repair easy.

Another new pin was used with a hoseclamp around the shifter rod to hold it
in place.

I can provide more brain numbing details if anyone is interested.

Cheers

Bruce

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