Urgent Help with Gears in Car

Stiffler2

Hi All,

This morning while driving my car into work I couldn't get the gears into 5th or 6th Gear. If I tried 5th it just ended up in 3rd. If i tried 6th gear it ended up in 4th.

So i had to drive into work in 4th gear basically. If I'm in 4th gear I can move the gearstick across into 6th gear without having to put the stick in the middle first, it just moves across.

The car I drive is a ford ST 170. year is 02 and it has 92k miles on it.
Just got a new clutch last year.

My friend seems to think it's only a servo of some sort but I don't think the gearstick should move across the way it now does.

Does anyone have any idea's what this could be or if it's going to be expensive to fix :-(

I was only talking to my friend via txt so he hasn't seen it physically.

I really hope it's something simple as I can't afford this right now.

Any help or feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks All

Henry Ford III

Sounds like the gear selector rods are broken or out of place.

Mr Benevolent

The most obvious thing would be a gear linkage problem. Fairly common problem from a quick Google.

Stiffler2

Hi,

Thanks for the info. I'm not a mechanic at all and know nothing about the workings of a car. I took off the gearstick cloth so I can see the rods moving around and they look okay to me but sure what do I know

Do you know if this will be expensive to repair ? I'm not looking at a new gearbox am I ?? There was / is no sound of crunching which is good news ??

Any idea how much roughly to repair this ?

Thanks Again

Mr Benevolent

Shouldn't be expensive, but get it to a garage before the linkage fails completely. A blown gearbox would show completely different symptoms.

Stiffler2

Hi,

Okay thanks for that. I'll get it looked at straight away.
Unfortunately though I will have to drive it home after I finish work.
About 10 miles so hopefully she'll be okay going slow in 4th gear.

Henry Ford III

The linkage issues (assuming this is the issue will be somewhere between the bottom of the gearstick and the gearbox itself.

The gearbox is likely be offset (transversely mounted engine) so your problem will only be visable underneath the car.

Stiffler2

Hi,

thanks all for the replies. Here is 4 images of the gearstick in question although I'm sure you won't be able to give me any more info from these pics.

Mr Benevolent

Stiffler2 wrote: »

Hi,

thanks all for the replies. Here is 4 images of the gearstick in question although I'm sure you won't be able to give me any more info from these pics.

Not very useful unfortunately - as Henry said, the action is underneath the car.

Stiffler2

Very True, I know the pictures are crap, sorry about that.
I'm getting a mechanic to look at it tonight so I will let you know the outcome tomo

langdang

Stiffler2 wrote: »

Very True, I know the pictures are crap, sorry about that.
I'm getting a mechanic to look at it tonight so I will let you know the outcome tomo

Count yourself lucky, linkage went on the brother but he ended up with no reverse for a few days - requires a
bit of forward thinking and lucky parking!

Henry Ford III

If the car goes into gears 1,2,3 and 4 smoothly and the clutch works ok, I'd bet a clapped out Rover ZS/ZT automatic it's a simple gear linkage issue

Stiffler2

Thanks All.
I've printed out this thread to give to the mechanic and will see what he says later on.

As Henry as mentioned gears 1,2,3 & 4 are smooth and the clutch is smooth as well so it's just 5th & 6th gear

will post results tomo

Gone Drinking

Stiffler2 wrote: »

Thanks All.
I've printed out this thread to give to the mechanic and will see what he says later on.

Don't print off the thread! He'll think you're a wally :P

Tell him you've read that the linkage is a common enough problem in this year/model st and that you suspect that is the problem.

challengemaster

lol, "and are ye on boards yourself lad" :pac:

I'd vote for the above advice too

Stiffler2

Hi All,

Turns out this was just a cable that connects from the gear stick hydraulics back to the engine. He took off the Air Box and something else beside it.

Asked me to move the gear stick around and saw the problem. There was a bit of cable that goes through what I can only describe as the top of a plastic coke bottle. This cap screws onto something else and it came off.

He super glued it and screwed it back in so hopefully it won't come off again.
He said it could last a day or may never come off again but recommended I get a new cable none the less.

Must say I'm delighted, thought it was going to cost a couple of grand to fix the gearbox