General Sticky gears (1st and 3rd)

[tinyfiat]

The gear lever is difficult to get out of first and third gears.
I’ve recently had the gearbox oil topped up but that hasn’t helped.
Could this be a problem with the linkage or something in the gearbox?

Thanks

 

[lazylobster]

Hi, it could be two things according to my limited knowledge.


1. The gearbox alignement can be adjusted with some bolts. Others will chip in on how to check / do this.

2. The plastic bush on the end of the gearstick is defective, broken. I had this and could not select 2nd / 4th gears. I had to replace the gearstick. It's not an expensive part.

Hopefully this will point you in the right direction.

R

 

[panda paul]

hi had this problem on our 2015 panda climbing 4x4 it was the flywheel bearing, damaged the clutch, when bearing started to let go fiat dealer job, ouch!!!

 

[Bleeding Knuckles]

The gear lever is difficult to get out of first and third gears.
I’ve recently had the gearbox oil topped up but that hasn’t helped.
Could this be a problem with the linkage or something in the gearbox?

Thanks

Hi TF, you don't say what car you have but the adjustment for the 500 is to locate the adjusters on the right hand side of the tunnel and loosen the two bolts, then slide the assembly forward for 1/3 gears and back for 2/4 gears. Also check the linkage lollipop between the gearshift and the gearbox input shaft, the rubber does perish and can make gearshift difficult. Get a manual - Haynes are not bad (see the download section) they make interesting reading - sort of !!!!
Ian.

 

[tinyfiat]

Yes I have 1971 500L.
I’ll open up the gearstick section to see if anything has worn away.
If the assembly needs to be re-adjusted, can this be done from inside the car or will I need access to the underside?

Thanks again

 

[the hobbler]

The 2 bolts that hold the gear-lever 'box' in place are on the inside of the car, on the right side of the central tunnel, level with the gear lever. You just slacken them off slightly (13mm spanner ) and gently tap the head of the bolts to move the selector 'box' forward.

 

[tinyfiat]

Finally managed to access the gear lever box.
Had a look inside the box but couldn’t see anything obviously wrong there.

The bolts on the side of the box are a bugger to loosen without removing the carpet but I managed.
Moving the lever forces the box to move and I think it eventually settled just slightly back (1mm) from the original position but getting out of 1st and 3rd is much smoother now.

 

[tinyfiat]

Thanks to everyone for your assistance