Technical Gearbox issues

[Thebus]

Hey there,
Driving into work today, seems like my gear linkage has either broken or come away from the gearbox somehow, as when i pulled away from the lights, i lost all gears, no selection at all, then when i stopped, it seems to be stuck in 3rd. any ideas on how to rectify this?

 

[normd]

hi, common problem this. the 'doughnut' on the end of the gear selector cable has popped off the balljoint at the gearbox. if you remove the airfilter assembly you can see it at the top rear of the gearbox. it happened to me last year. i fixed it temporarily by pushing it back on and then putting a tywrap around the balljoint to keep the doughnut on. that was about 10k miles ago. i really must do a proper fix one day...

 

[Thebus]

hey there, mine has completly fallen out of the doughnut. have put it back in, superglued it and cable tied it, but not overly confident its a good fix! fiat have quoted £185 for the cable!

 

[Thebus]

Went to order the part from fiat the other day to be told that they no longer make that part! great, so trip to the scrappy now, fingers crossed it works!!

 

[normd]

hi, not sure how you would have used superglue as the doughnut has to be free to rotate a bit each way on the spindle for the gears to be selected. To be clear, what i did was to push the doughnut back onto the spindle forcing it down as far as it could go then putting a tywrap around the protruding end of the spindle. it's lasted a year so far on a car driven every day.

 

[Thebus]

just loaded the rubber up with some extreme unibond glue, stays flexible, but can withstand temps of up to 120 degrees. used cable ties aswell. fingers crossed it holds!