Loose/Play in the Shifter

[engineerlutz]

I bought a car a couple months ago and when my uncle and I compared cars (both 1979) we both noticed my shifter seemed to have a lot more play in it.

The shifter in my uncle's car slips into the shift positions tightly with very little play. When switching between gears, you better be right on top of it to get the shifter to lock in to the slot.

Mine on the other hand has easily 1/4" play either direction when it is in gear and is just as sloppy when you're shifting gear. The other thing I noticed is when i shift over to 5th, i have to reach much farther than my uncle's car and there is much more play in the shifter. It feels like i'm moving a knife in a jar of peanut butter too rather than a smooth mechanical sensation.

Any ideas? Do I need to replace the shifter lever socket or is it something to do with the shifter forks? There are no other mechanical maladies and the car drives like a champ.

[Exit98]

Could be as simple as this:

http://www.autoricambi.us/product/TR5-5 ... ---1973on/

And if you try this replace the inner boot too. Helps keep heat and fumes out of the cockpit.

Good luck.

[engineerlutz]

Not long after I posted I found this:

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... a&start=45

I'll get one on order along with a boot. My inner boot is missing. I found the original cig lighter down in there the other day.

[vandor]

It could also be that the plastic ball on the lower shift lever is worn/broken.

[So Cal Mark]

it could be the lower pivot or the bushings between the upper and lower levers, or both

[engineerlutz]

This weekend i found time to remove the shifter components, but i ran into two things.

First, when i pulled the unit apart, I didnt see which way the plastic cup was oriented to know which way to put it back together. Can anyone help? I assume the chamfered edge points toward the front of the car.



Next, when i was examining the old part and the replacement part i found they aren't identical. In the next picture you can see the notches in the ID are not clocked the same. The boss at the base of the spheres have an indent which are identical though which you can see in the last picture. Is this something I should be concerned about? I didn't think my plastic piece looked too worn. All the other pieces were not broken or worn.

[wizard124]

The plastic piece only fits one way as the 3 holes are not symetrically spaced.

If the shift forks are worn, then the throw to engage gears will be longer and less precise.

[engineerlutz]

I put the shifter back together last night. I drove it to work this morning.

The slop is gone. There is still a bit of slop, but it is caused by the shifting rod spherical being a little worn in the selection shaft. Driving, it shifts much smoother. I think a big improvement is the larger spring that came with the new shift kit. It was about 1/2" longer.

Looking at the wear on the old parts, nothing seemed particularly worn or appeared damaged. Though when i compared the new parts to the old, I found the newer plastic spherical had a smaller hole and different height. When assembled, the new assembly was shorter. None of the parts were interchangeable.





Thanks for the help.