wobbly gear stick..........

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wotsupnow
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wobbly gear stick..........

Post by wotsupnow »

When I'm driving along the gear stick moves about 1" back and forth most of the time. I've also noticed the engine moves a fair amount when starting too. Is there a monuting I should be looking at ?
Xantia 1.9TD 5-door LX 1998 face lift, only 100,800 miles..........
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h3rjp
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Post by h3rjp »

I hope it's nothing serious - on our first Xantia (96 year), it kept falling out of gear and needed a new gearbox! I'm sure yours is nothing serious our 205 GTi's gear lever moves around like a spoon in some porridge!
VisaGTi16v
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Post by VisaGTi16v »

Probably the engine mounts I would say if its moving when you accelerate and lift off. Even more so if the engine jerks about when starting. Open up the bonnet and rev it and see if the engine moves back and forwards. Looking from the front theres a engine mount on the left in the middle. Probably this one thats worn out, quite simply to change and not that expensive I would have thought. The other 2 will be more so as ones under the battery, other underneath but again shouldnt cost all that much.
Gear lever moving like a spoon in treacle etc will be down to the gear linkages being shot. The rubber in the ball joint bits wears out and they can fall apart sometimes as I had at a sprint in my visa. Good old cable ties fixed that for the day however it would still drop out of gear on extreme cornering :)
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davek-uk
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Post by davek-uk »

I had similar movement in my gearstick - not associated with speed or acceleration etc. Later I noticed that other things in the car also rocked! It turned out that I had a tyre going out of shape. Oddly enough I didn't feel the usual vibration you would associate with an out of balance wheel. I thought first of engine mounts but was proved wrong...
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

I've just done the clutch on my '95 Xantia and had a good look at the gear linkages. There are the two normal linkages for gear changing, but also a third linkage whose purpose seems to be to compensate for the engine rocking backwards or forwards. On that car, as you drive along you can feel the gear lever make a slight side to side movement, like the tyres weren't round anymore.
The linkage seems to be designed to cope with a certain amount of backwards/forwards motion, but only a certain amount, so if you've got a dodgy engine mount it could have too much movement for this compensation linkage.
There are only 3 engine mounts, if it is a mount that is at fault, I would guess that its most likely the bottom mount, since its the one in the weather and oil (oil doesn't do rubber any good).
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

Just to depress you my BX TD has a very determined lever shake in 5th gear. The lever is steady in all other gears but in 5th it wobbles around and when I push it to the right or ahead under load I can feel a harsh vibration. I believe all the engine mounts are good although the engine doesn't feel quite as firm as our ZX 1.9D and I'm led to think there is a fault with the 5th gear bearings as the 5th gear appears to be operated by a separate lever. The car has done 195,000 which might be genuine and is otherwise fine.
I have had a good look for likely things but none of the linkage seems to be touching anything, the linkage is slightly slack but that seems to result in excessive movement acros the gate, particularily when compared to the ZX (only 54,000 miles)
Putting a cable tie round the 2 fore/aft gearlever rods did improve things somewhat as one (sideways rod) seemed to flap around a lot. this was done just to make sure it wasn't contacting anything as it could be made to slap the floor.
I think my box is knackered and will have to be replaced.
Incidentally the gearlever assembly is different and seems to have one long rod from lever to box rather than the 2 of the BX. Does anyone know if the 2 boxes are interchangeable (allowing for a similar clutch mechanism?) or if I were to use a ZX box would I need to use a gearlever as well?
jeremy
cheesesliceking

Post by cheesesliceking »

Engine Mounts & the Rubber bit that is in between the bottom of the gear stick under the car that joins the gear lever to the long long long gear rod & all the gear linkage & also the ball & socket thing that bolts onto the bottom of the car that links the gear linkage things...
I know this as my AX had the same trouble & changing that sorted it.[:D]
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