Shifter stiff

[jsloden]

Just purchased the car a couple of weeks ago. A non-runner. The shifter and linkage seem to be pretty stiff. I can't actually get the shifter to move over far enough to the right to go into fifth gear. I also can't seen to get it to lift so that it can go into reverse. Hoping someone out there has had this problem before and know whats going on.

Thanks

[Mark D]

Just purchased the car a couple of weeks ago. A non-runner. The shifter and linkage seem to be pretty stiff. I can't actually get the shifter to move over far enough to the right to go into fifth gear. I also can't seen to get it to lift so that it can go into reverse. Hoping someone out there has had this problem before and know whats going on.

Thanks

The black cover plate around the shifter can be removed pretty easily for you to take a peek inside. The left to right movement of the shifter controls a cable routed back to the transmission selector lever and the fore aft movement of the shifter is a series of linkages also connected to a selector on the transmission. There is a bellcrank in the center of the chassis connected to the fore/aft linkage that has a pivot bolt known to have issues.

If the left/right movement is particularly stiff then there could be binding in the cable.. dried grease or kinked routing of the cable possibly? And/or the grease in the actual shifter mechanism in the center console could be gummy.

If you remove the gearshift knob (unscrew counter clockwise) and remove the A/C fascia plate (pull off knobs and remove one small phillips head screw) then you can remove the two exposed screws towards the rear of the black console plate and lift it off. There should be a rubber boot covering the guts of the shifter mechanism below, and once that is pulled off you can see if there is a bunch of hardened grease gumming things up. You can also check the left/right movement underneath the car with a helper moving the gearshift to see if there is anything loose or binding up on the transmission side.

If you're unable to get the shifter far enough over to get into 5th gear the left/right crossgate cable may need to be adjusted. If you search around on the board I believe there are a few threads describing this process in greater detail.


EDIT:
For reference, here's a photo I took a few years back that shows the shift boot and black cover plate removed. The center console itself is also shown removed, but you don't need to disassemble things that far to get to the guts of the shift mechanism.

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=43744&d=1466135047

[Mark D]

Here's another photo that shows the underside of the shift mechanism as viewed from underneath the car looking inside the center hollow section of the frame. You can see the cable in the upper right part of the photo for the L/R movement and the hard linkage for fore/aft. The big blurry bolt in the foreground is a pivot bolt that reverses the direction of the fore/aft movement with a bellcrank. That bolt is known to shear off and the PO may have gotten creative and used a regular bolt instead of a smooth shaft pivot bolt which may be causing it to bind up.

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=43745&d=1466135527

There's a good exploded view of the shift linkage here:
http://store.delorean.com/c-289-4-2-0-manual-shift-linkage.aspx

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=43746&d=1466135872

[jsloden]

Thanks for all your help. Looks like I have a couple of more things to add to my list this weekend. I imagine gummed up grease is at least part if not all of the issue.

Thanks again.

[dn010]

Call up your favorite vendor and buy a shift bushing kit. Between that and a new cross gate cable along with proper adjustments, my car shifts 100% better!

[Andrew]

I've purchased two cars that sat for long periods of time. Both had issues with the crossgate cable sticking which caused stiffness in side-to-side movement. I presume that some rust developed in the cable housing. With both cars I was able to progressively work the shifters free with about 15 to 30 minutes of movement. Some grease on the cable ends and fittings wouldn't hurt.

[dn010]

I've purchased two cars that sat for long periods of time. Both had issues with the crossgate cable sticking which caused stiffness in side-to-side movement. I presume that some rust developed in the cable housing. With both cars I was able to progressively work the shifters free with about 15 to 30 minutes of movement. Some grease on the cable ends and fittings wouldn't hurt.

If your cables aren't torn up and bent from the previous whoever's attempt to install it improperly in the frame or dropping the transmission without removing it for a clutch (I'm guessing), I'm sure you could get away with refurbing it. I'll be honest, my "NOS" cable from DMCH needed some help too since after all, it is as old as the original one. The rubber tips on it were dry and cracked even - the one on my old cable was in better condition!

[David T]

If your cables aren't torn up and bent from the previous whoever's attempt to install it improperly in the frame or dropping the transmission without removing it for a clutch (I'm guessing), I'm sure you could get away with refurbing it. I'll be honest, my "NOS" cable from DMCH needed some help too since after all, it is as old as the original one. The rubber tips on it were dry and cracked even - the one on my old cable was in better condition!

Could be the cable but it also could be the linkage on the transmission that the cable connects to. Disconnect the cable at the transmission and see if it is easier to move. For the reverse gate you will have to get into the shifter mechanism in the console and see why you can't get reverse. Could be the same problem, you can't move the shifter far enough over to the left so fix the left-right movement problem first.

[Rodney]

Could be the cable but it also could be the linkage on the transmission that the cable connects to. Disconnect the cable at the transmission and see if it is easier to move. For the reverse gate you will have to get into the shifter mechanism in the console and see why you can't get reverse. Could be the same problem, you can't move the shifter far enough over to the left so fix the left-right movement problem first.

I had a broken transmission mount that cause a stiff shift. You may want to check this also. RK

[jsloden]

Took the cover off the shift linkage. Looks like it's going to be that cross gate cable. It's definitely sticking. The shifter had no problems moving side to side once I disconnected it from the shift linkage. Going to get under the car tomorrow and try to oil and grease both ends of it. Do you actually pull up on the shifter to go into reverse. I can move the shifter over and there's kind of a notch before it goes all the way over. But the shifter doesn't actually go up. Best I can describe is it's kind of like my e30.

Thanks for all the help.

[Mark D]

The shifter does need to be lifted up to move all the way over to the left and find reverse.

In this picture you can see the lockout mechanism...there is a roll pin that moves with the shift lever as it moves left and right. There is a notched bracket in front of the shifter that the roll pin slides against. The notch is deeper for selecting gears 1-5 and blocks the leftmost position. When you lift the shifter up the roll pin is lifted along with it so the shifter is able to be moved further to the left.

http://dmctalk.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=43752&d=1466199897

The arm attached to the shift cable does not actually move up with the shift knob, so you should be only looking for that roll pin attached to the shift arm being able to move up and down.

If you're unable to lift the shifter knob upward then you may have something binding up ...try hitting that area with some WD40 or brake cleaner to dissolve some of the old grease.

[jsloden]

The shifter in my car is stuck about half way up. It's up just enough for the roll pin to barely clear the indent. I guess the shifter just down all the way. I soaked the area where the roll pin goes through the shifter with pb blaster and a good amount of liquid rust came out. We'll see how it is in the morning I guess.

Thanks

[jsloden]

Finally got it. Only had to use a quart of pb blaster on it. It finally lifted up like its supposed to. Now on to the cross gate cable.

Thanks

[Mark D]

Hey glad to hear that you've at least got the up/down movement on the shifter smoothed out. If that part was stuck then it's no surprise the cable is probably pretty sticky inside too. PB blaster is great stuff so that should hopefully work for you on the cable too.