Xantia Gear Linkage adjustments

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rdj104
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Joined: 16 May 2005, 04:33
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Xantia Gear Linkage adjustments

Post by rdj104 »

Hi,

How do you adjust the gear linkages on a Xantia Hdi 110 engine?

My xantia is getting increasingly difficult to get into reverse gear, and I think that the linkage is the cause of my problems. When it's in 5th gear, the stick almost sits in the centre (where neutral is) rather than pointing forwards. And I struggle to push it far enough back to get Reverse.

Haynes is less that useful, apart from telling me I have the ML5T gearbox, as found in the 110HDi's and 2.1 litre diesels.
DerekH
Posts: 11
Joined: 17 Oct 2005, 13:22
Location: Southampton UK
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Post by DerekH »

I've got a similar problem on an HDi 110 estate. In my case there appears to be much sloppiness on 5th to reverse - but the result is the same as yours. The control is via cables and on the gearbox they just clip on so it seems to me that the problem lies somewhere in the gearshift mechanism. This looka a big job. Perhaps those in the know can assist?

Derek (late Kered)
DerekH
Posts: 11
Joined: 17 Oct 2005, 13:22
Location: Southampton UK
My Cars:

Post by DerekH »

Mine suddenly got worse over the weekend and I was forced to investigate. The problem turned out to be that one of the cable outers has escaped from its crimped outer at the gear shift end. The result was that there was much lost motion as the outer moved instead of just the inner moving and actuating the gearbox. The result was a very sloppy gearchange, reverse almost impossible to get and 3rd got terrible.

First of all check that this is your problem. Have someone operating the gear lever 3rd to 4th repeatedly while you check what is happening to the cables under the car, beneath the gear stick. The offending cable is the one on the drivers side.

It is possible to remove the cable. To do this, taking all precautions, go under the car and undo the 12? screws holding the black plastic plate to the underside of the gear stick unit - the 2 end ones under the exhaust can be undone with a flate blade driver.. The cable end is snapped onto the gear stick and can be pinged off with 2 screwdrivers. A large horseshoe clip just inside of the front is pulled down and then you can withdraw the cable. I elected to do a repair. The metal part that goes through into the box was crimped onto the cable. If you look at the plastic outer of the cable you can see where the crimp was. I pulled it apart as much as possible and squirted in some degreaser. When this dried I applied Screwfix polyurethane building adhesive as far into the crimped sleeve as I could. (This stuff is amazing! It cures by moisture in air and foams slightly as it cures.) I then pushed the plastic coated cable into this sleeve as far as I could. I then close the crimped part with molegrips. I left it 2 hours and now it seems like a new car! It has never been like this since I've had it.

I anticipate this to be a permanent repair as the affore mentioned adhesive has sorted out many problemd for me.

Derek H (was Kered in Andyspares)
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