General Seicento - Unable to select 3rd Gear

[Steve/Lyndsay]

Hi,

I recently suffered the dreaded clutch cable failure, resulting in me driving home crunching through 1st/2nd & 3rd gear. I have managed to replace the clutch cable but now find that 3rd gear cannot be selected. The gear stick feels as though it selects 3rd gear, but when I raise the clutch, the engine/gearbox simply grinds.

Any thoughts?

 

[AppleSei]

Cable not adjusted properly?

 

[gt3man]

busted box ? or linkage bent fouled or misaligned

 

[fingers99]

Try clutch cable adjustment first. Next look at the linkeages at both the gearbox and lever ends and use a little spray grease on the ball sockets, checking, while you're in there, that none of the cable clips have come loose. See if you can can engage third "by hand" directly from the linkeage.

Check gearbox oil level..............

Ifnone of those sort it, get back.

 

[Steve/Lyndsay]

Thanks for advice. I doubt it is the clutch cable, as I feel that I adjusted and experimented quite a lot when I first replaced it. I will try agin though (when I next get time!).

I will also check linkage at both ends of gear.

I am concerned that I may have done some permanent gearbox damag whilst crunching into gears whilst clutch cable was broken. Is this possible?

 

[gt3man]

Thanks for advice. I doubt it is the clutch cable, as I feel that I adjusted and experimented quite a lot when I first replaced it. I will try agin though (when I next get time!).

I will also check linkage at both ends of gear.

I am concerned that I may have done some permanent gearbox damag whilst crunching into gears whilst clutch cable was broken. Is this possible?

It is most likely the box has now broke but have a tinker as it may not be

good luck ...

 

[randomizered]

Did you try and match the speeds so it just slips in, or did you just force it when it didn't want to go?

I never knew you could do it till rallycinq told me, and it wasn't too hard to do. I'd doubt you'd damage it doing so.

Kristian

 

[Steve/Lyndsay]

I tried to match the speeds, but hate to say it didn't always work, so there was a fair amount of forcing involved. Not good I know!

I'm going to try and have a look at it this weekend and will reort back after that.

We've now decided to replace the car, so I just want to have the gearbox satisfactory so that I can sell the car, as a faulty gearbox will obviously put off all except the mechanical experts!

 

[daximus]

Hi,

I recently suffered the dreaded clutch cable failure, resulting in me driving home crunching through 1st/2nd & 3rd gear. I have managed to replace the clutch cable but now find that 3rd gear cannot be selected. The gear stick feels as though it selects 3rd gear, but when I raise the clutch, the engine/gearbox simply grinds.

Any thoughts?

Ive recently had my gearbox fixed and a new clutch cable. when it came to aligning my gears we had all sorts of finnicky little irritating problems but we persevered and im now on the road! I had the same problem as you, when going along....wheres 3rd!!?! turned out that my gears werent completely aligned exactly to how they should have been, but as my dad was kindly helping me (couldnt afford silly garage prices with student wages!) I didnt complain. I found at first it wouldnt go into 3rd at all so with some fiddling around under the bonnet, it would eventually go in with some grinding. i had the same problem with 1st after 3rd was okay, resulting in me not being able to move either! (it seemed like 1st was mucked up after doing 3rd gear!?) my clutch however was set to most probably the highest it could have been (as well as 1st not been aligned smack on)although didnt have the grinding when trying to pull away. so it may be the same kind of thing where you just have to keep trying/fiddling around (unless you do end up taking it to a garage!) but I found this problem SO annoying so I hope this makes you feel a bit more like your not alone on this one! :idea:

 

[Steve/Lyndsay]

Would you believe it...we bought a relacement car over the weekend and then took the Seicento to a local garage and told them the symptoms. They rang back to ask me what I as talking about as 3rd gear was fine!!

And it was! Our only conclusion is that maybe there was a bit of broken off metal (from the gear cogs?) trapped in the gearbox that became displaced during the drive to the garage.

I'm not complaining anyway!

I do have a bit of a crunching on 2nd gear, which I am advised is a faulty synchromesh and have been quoted £250 to have that fixed. I intend to leave for now as not a big issue and I may have a buyer who is willing to accept the slight fault.

Thanks for the reply.