General Panda 5 speed gear selector - gear lever phasing/timing

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General Panda 5 speed gear selector - gear lever phasing/timing

DaveMcT

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I've just replaced the clutch, oil seals and input bearing on a 1.2. I've now got the gear lever out of phase with the gearbox selectors (can't access all the gears).
On the 100HP six speed, I simply set it in neutral and all was good. That hasn't worked properly on the five speed.

Before I open it up to sort it out (I mean the top cover), what's the best gear to select before boxing up the selector cover?
 
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Did you set the reverse gear selector into its fork properly? If you open the box, it's quite tricky to set it back properly and it tends to fall back easily so you have to hold it in place with your fingers or something, until you close the box.
 
Thanks for the reverse gear warning I had "great fun" doing the six speed. But I got the five speed reverse connected quite easily and its working fine driving the car. I also assembled it in neutral. The issue was finding 3rd and 4th gears. It felt like the reverse gate was in the way of 4th.

I've just pulled off the shifter cover to have a look. It all looks fine - and it's sitting there in neutral ! So putting back again. More later after a test drive.
 
Looks like I've found it. The shifter cover is back on the box. 3rd and 4th gears are now accessible.

The only issue I could see, was the nylon spacer that supports the thicker across-gate bias spring has nylon "wings". During assembly, these are pulled back and retained against ribs inside the case. I had released the spring, but set the wings vertical. This allowed one side to catch on a retaining screw underneath. I believe this was enough to stop the shifter fully moving across. I rotated it a few degrees and got more range of movement. When I have time, I'll post a couple of pictures.
 
Pictures as promised.

First picture shows the nylon bush as I left it when assembling the gearbox. The “ears” are perpendicular to the joint face. However a baffle plate bolt "underneath" fouls one of the ears so you don't get full gear lever travel across the gate.

Second picture shows it rotated a few degrees to miss the offending screw head. Check the slide can move full range and you are good to go.

It's a design error that Fiat could have fixed by shortening the ears on that nylon bush. But the production line folks don't matter to the bean counters.

The red is red grease used to retain a gasket I made for the job (I ran out of Loctite 518 and my RTV was solid. There are no clearance issues and it's worked well.
 

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Pictures as promised.

First picture shows the nylon bush as I left it when assembling the gearbox. The “ears” are perpendicular to the joint face. However a baffle plate bolt "underneath" fouls one of the ears so you don't get full gear lever travel across the gate.

Second picture shows it rotated a few degrees to miss the offending screw head. Check the slide can move full range and you are good to go.

It's a design error that Fiat could have fixed by shortening the ears on that nylon bush. But the production line folks don't matter to the bean counters.

The red is red grease used to retain a gasket I made for the job (I ran out of Loctite 518 and my RTV was solid. There are no clearance issues and it's worked well.
C1EA44F6-5AB1-41F6-8680-CA99509D2A72.jpeg

The bush on the left needs to be locked in to stop it moving,and jamming.
 
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