Gear selection

Seems to have gone to pot! S reg LE#173. Has been driving fine and I've been using her as a daily driver lately (as my smart car has a problem) Was fine last night but driving to work this morning selecting 3rd gear was dodgy from the off! just not slick as if it was slightly in the wrong place. I had to change more carefully as if I had a H gate on. When i parked it up it didn't seem to find neutral. I started the engine again and it was in neutral - just no side to side movement of the gear stick. The car has some sort of short shift mechanism on too. I don't know if that's anything to do with it.

Any ideas? I'm planning to lift the gear stick cover up at lunchtime and see if there's anything obvious. Any suggestions welcome.

Yes, lift up the gear stick cover to see if the gear selector housing at the bottom is either cracked or loose (held in place by 3 or 4 bolts, but the nuts are only accesible from below by dropping the whole frame after removing the cat and/or centre exhause pipe)

Sounds like the nylon base has broken.

New base from Partsworld, you'll also need 2x needle bearings, haven't got the part numbers but Steve at AA can help.

Cheers Joe. It just developed a bit as I had to go and move my car. That's when I found had no reverse! I lifted the garter but there wasn't much to see. There was a piece of broken plastic from that nylon base that you indicated. I'll order that part and the needle bearings. I'll have t o get a local garage to fit it! Is that the same part DaveG is referring to - accessible only from underneath?

Yes

I’ve had the same issue with the Nylon base and it occurred when driving in traffic in London. I managed to make it back to home then when I went for reverse to park it the whole thing sheared leaving me with no gears.

Holy moly! I managed to make it home with a gear box full of 3rd gears - all biased right over to the passenger side of the car and no reverse! It's parked on the road outside now what a pain in the arse time for this to happen. Coops hey

Thanks for the link to the plastic bit Joe. Alternative autos didn't know the part number for the needle bearing but thought you might Any Ideas

It seems to be a popular fault at the moment. I've seen two other posts regarding this

Where do we get the needle bearings anyone

"Roller Casing" part # 46411551 possibly?

That's one ones

Get them from Fiat?

Yes your local Fiat dealer can supply these, they might come as a minimum order of 5x in a pack, if they do I'll buy the spares to help as I still change these on a regularly basis.

Cheers guys. Sold singly at £7.95 each. Fiat had none in stock but next day delivery.

Parts are in at Fiat now. I know it might pain some of you but coop is booked into a local garage next Wednesday to have it fitted Can't wait

Well got her back tonight and it was very nice to drive her home. Gearchange is not as it was IMO but I haven't refitted the cloth gaiter thing yet (I forgot to send that to the garage)

The garage were impressed with what a pain in the ass job it was and I think they added a few quid on for extra Swarfega to clean off the sticky rubber gunge caused by my tacky console

Will take her to work tomorrow for a little road test

didn't take her to work as the bloody door locks were frozen!
Coops hey

Mine doesn't like the cold either.
Once I've got past the frozen locks I have to deal with a frozen screen (inside - due to a failed boot seal) and then a frozen handbrake.
Good job I love it!!!

great stuff guys both my coupes failed in cold spell..shattered nylon boxes....only reverse on one and other parked waiting for the snap !both getting fixed, but problem finding needle rollers..try another main dealer
thanks for posts and keep couping

Having read this post, I'm glad that I live in the sub-tropics and have a garage to protect my Coupe from the thunder storms that, occasionally, have "hard bits" mixed with the rain.

One has to love a Coupe with air-con!

Almost stopped reading at that point! Lol.

I think most UK coupes were sold with non working Aircon as it was too fiddly...at least that seems to be the main finding of any summer coup meet up in the UK...

Enjoy the sun for us all.

MM

both nylon boxes and 2 cables replaced on both coupes all good , one has very stiff sideways movement on one though...garage says its in the gearbox ?
Ac on mine is both windows opened at 100 mph !

Sorry for resurrecting this one, but I have finally got round to replacing the nylon gear lever body on mine (only been waiting 3 years!).

Car is in my barn, all nice and warm and dry, so not a problem there, but I don't have the option of taking it to a garage over here in France, so have to do it myself. Not an easy job and also found that the workshop manual is very little help, particularly since the diagram of the lever housing etc. is totally incorrect as it's drawn upside down. Very strange, but at least the EPER has it correctly.

What I have found so far ...

1. To reach it the tunnel has to come off, after the CAT and rear exhaust

2. Front exhaust is in the way as the Tunnel extends across it, although also removing the handbrake will allow more rear movement

3. Removing the cables from the gearbox to allow the tunnel / housing to come off is a bit of a problem as I can barely see let alone reach them under the bonnet. Thought it would be easier.

4. attempting to remove the main housing from the tunnel instead seemed an idea, but selector cables go through a bracket on the tunnel (not shown in the manual), so back to (3) I think and try again.

5. Would have been nice to have a proper lift to put the car on, rather than high ramps and crawling underneath! Not good for the back. I might have to think about installing one for the future.

6. At least spending a lot of time under the car has shown that there is no rust, except for a little surface rust in the usual places.

7. Still surprised at the differences and the lack of clarity in the workshop manual and even EPER and the fact that they don't match!

So, I would say that this is definitely a garage job, but .... will persevere and be thankful that I don't need the car - aim to get it ready for a spring outing I think.

Paul