Technical 1.9 Multijet Stiff Gear shift + Can't Select 5th/6th Gear

[jackanyon]

Hey everyone,

I just bought this car off of a friend. It had been sat for 3 to 4 years. With some fresh diesel and battery it started right up and is fine other than the gear stick being stiff.

The issue is that the gear stick is very stiff to move between gears. I also cannot physically push the stick far enough to the right to select 5th and 6th, it'll move no further to the right than the centre, so I'm stuck with 1st through 4th. Would I be right in thinking this is an issue with the linkage cables? My friend tells me he had a similar issue originally and it was rectified by replacing the linkages, but he could still select all 6 gears.

The car is on 119k, and like I say, has been sat outside for a long time.

I have a fair bit of mechanical knowledge, however its mainly around 90's cars but I'm happy to tackle this myself! If anyone has any tips or trick, I'd be most grateful

Thank you!

 

[bugsymike]

Hey everyone,

I just bought this car off of a friend. It had been sat for 3 to 4 years. With some fresh diesel and battery it started right up and is fine other than the gear stick being stiff.

The issue is that the gear stick is very stiff to move between gears. I also cannot physically push the stick far enough to the right to select 5th and 6th, it'll move no further to the right than the centre, so I'm stuck with 1st through 4th. Would I be right in thinking this is an issue with the linkage cables? My friend tells me he had a similar issue originally and it was rectified by replacing the linkages, but he could still select all 6 gears.

The car is on 119k, and like I say, has been sat outside for a long time.

I have a fair bit of mechanical knowledge, however its mainly around 90's cars but I'm happy to tackle this myself! If anyone has any tips or trick, I'd be most grateful

Thank you!

With it safely switched off why don't you disconnect the cables at the gearbox end and see if you can select all the gears on the outside of the gearbox and also with it disconnected see if you get full travel at the gear lever.
I had a 1.9 Doblo, gears were OK on that but recently fitted new cables to my 1.6 Doblo , it needed to be on axle stands but once the correct cables were supplied it was fairly straight forward.
I assume plenty of oil in the gearbox?

 

[jackanyon]

With it safely switched off why don't you disconnect the cables at the gearbox end and see if you can select all the gears on the outside of the gearbox and also with it disconnected see if you get full travel at the gear lever.
I had a 1.9 Doblo, gears were OK on that but recently fitted new cables to my 1.6 Doblo , it needed to be on axle stands but once the correct cables were supplied it was fairly straight forward.
I assume plenty of oil in the gearbox?

Thanks for your reply! I just had chance to have a look at it today.

It turned out that the horizontal cable had completely seized underneath the gear stick. As a temporary measure, I’ve cut back the sheathing (inside of the plastic unit) and wire brushed it.

It looks a bit barbaric, but it’ll do until the cars through an MOT and can have some money spent on it.

I now have all 6 gears!!