Kleynie
A2OC Donor
In case this helps anyone in the future Adam and I changed the gear selector tower on our new family member today. We've had this car in the family for a month and it was purchased for £500 with 117K miles and a dodgy gear selector. There are many other faults, but we are gradually working through them to get a decent car at the end of it.
The symptoms of the gear selector were that the gear stick itself would not centre, it would go in gear fine, but when released it would not self centre as it should. We worked out that the bonnet drain was not aligned and was letting water into the gearbox area, we suspect that this contributed to the early failure of the selector tower.
First, we removed the cables, the counter weight and the two M6 bolts that hold the tower assembly in place. The tower would not budge and required persuasion with a crow bar before it easily lifted out. Note, the gearbox needs to be in neutral with the holding pins in place.
This was going very well and the new assembly went in very easy.
However, when tightening the two bolts that hold the assembly in place one snapped very easily, so the whole thing had to come out again and the broken bolt tapped out with a hammer and punch. This was lucky as its near impossible to get a drill in to drill the bolt out.
Anyway, minor mishap behind us, we then put everything back together, we had a new counterweight as the old one had been forced previously and the spines inside the hole were lose.
Everything back together and the cables aligned the job was a good'un. Now all we need to do is change the gearbox oil.
This is a very easy DIY job and you should not be put off doing it. It should take less than an hour if all goes well.
Probably the next big job will be a suspension refresh to make this car what it should be before the youngest in our family learns to drive in it in the coming weeks and months.
Ian & Adam.
The symptoms of the gear selector were that the gear stick itself would not centre, it would go in gear fine, but when released it would not self centre as it should. We worked out that the bonnet drain was not aligned and was letting water into the gearbox area, we suspect that this contributed to the early failure of the selector tower.
First, we removed the cables, the counter weight and the two M6 bolts that hold the tower assembly in place. The tower would not budge and required persuasion with a crow bar before it easily lifted out. Note, the gearbox needs to be in neutral with the holding pins in place.
This was going very well and the new assembly went in very easy.
However, when tightening the two bolts that hold the assembly in place one snapped very easily, so the whole thing had to come out again and the broken bolt tapped out with a hammer and punch. This was lucky as its near impossible to get a drill in to drill the bolt out.
Anyway, minor mishap behind us, we then put everything back together, we had a new counterweight as the old one had been forced previously and the spines inside the hole were lose.
Everything back together and the cables aligned the job was a good'un. Now all we need to do is change the gearbox oil.
This is a very easy DIY job and you should not be put off doing it. It should take less than an hour if all goes well.
Probably the next big job will be a suspension refresh to make this car what it should be before the youngest in our family learns to drive in it in the coming weeks and months.
Ian & Adam.
