Hi, after browsing these forums I'm hoping that someone can kindly help me.

I've been let down by a mechanic friend who advised me to purchase a new gear selector/gearstick for my doblo, as a result of the gears being very loose and difficult to put into gear. Although it does still select into gears and drive, it has become increasingly difficult to drive.

I now have a replacement one from a scrappy which includes the selector and plastic casing, and on referring to the original one it appears that's its a straight swap and a matter of changing over on two ball joints and refixing.

Problem I have is, if I replace it will me removing the original one affect the integrity of the cables attached to the ball joints? I'm confident I can complete the repair myself, but suspect that I have to tweak and retighten the cables then this would cause me problems.

Please note - original issue was a welded small piece to the selector had snapped and broken.

I appreciate that this is my first post, byt your help is really appreciated in advance.

Thanks, Davey.

Welcome to the forum

I've added a prefix to your thread so that it appears in the Doblo section.

I could be wrong, but I believe that the selector cables can still be bought new so if you're concerned you could always get a replacement set.

Thanks very much for your reply. Apologies as I've replicated my posts as I was unsure if it was in the correct section.

No worries, that's what we're here for

When you connect the gear selection cables, make sure the box is set in first gear and the gear lever is set in first gear. If they are out of phase you will not be able to select all of the gears.

You should have no problems popping the cables on and off a few times to get things right. It’s a fairly easy and straightforward job to do on fiats, it’s just taking the interior parts out to get to the selector that takes time.

As pointed out if there is still little improvement you can get new cables, though they can be a bit costly, you could also look at the selector mechanism on top of the gearbox as there are some pins and bushings that can come a bit loose.