5-speed shifter is a bit loose and sloppy

[eldusto84]

Hi everyone, I am new to this board although I have been stalking through posts for the past several months now. I have always wanted to own a Delorean, and I've reached a point in my life where it's sort of a "now-or-never" type thing. My wife and I don't have any kids yet and she has fully supports me going after my dream car, so after a bit of research and patience, I finally went and bought one!

Anyways, one of the issues I'm noticing right off the bat is that the shifter feels a bit loose. When I place it into gear, I can still wiggle the stick up and down quite a bit, giving the feeling that it's not completely engaged. It also wiggles left and right, but to a lesser extent. The clutch and transmission themselves seem fine...no grinding or any weirdness while driving. Any ideas on what might be causing this, or is this normal for a Delorean? This is the only one I've ever driven so I have nothing to compare to!

Dustin

[jawn101]

Hi everyone, I am new to this board although I have been stalking through posts for the past several months now. I have always wanted to own a Delorean, and I've reached a point in my life where it's sort of a "now-or-never" type thing. My wife and I don't have any kids yet and she has fully supports me going after my dream car, so after a bit of research and patience, I finally went and bought one!

Anyways, one of the issues I'm noticing right off the bat is that the shifter feels a bit loose. When I place it into gear, I can still wiggle the stick up and down quite a bit, giving the feeling that it's not completely engaged. It also wiggles left and right, but to a lesser extent. The clutch and transmission themselves seem fine...no grinding or any weirdness while driving. Any ideas on what might be causing this, or is this normal for a Delorean? This is the only one I've ever driven so I have nothing to compare to!

Dustin

Welcome to the board and congrats! There are a number of adjustments. Side to side is not usually adjusted (the cross-gate cable is set at the factory and is normally right) but fore/aft is adjusted by simple threaded rod linkages. Does the shifter clank when you move it? Not the transmission, but the shifter itself. There are rubber bushings with plastic half-sleeves in the linkage that can wear out over time and cause that noise. My car was missing every single one of them when I got it and it's not a hard or expensive fix. Adding them tightened up and quieted things down quickly.

Parts #7 and #8 on this diagram:

http://store.delorean.com/c-289-4-2-0-manual-shift-linkage.aspx

Good luck!

[82DMC12]

That sounds pretty normal. I've seen some cars with really stiff shifters and some with really loose ones. As long as it doesn't pop out of gear I think it's ok. I know mine has loosened a bit over the years but it still feels good.

[Bitsyncmaster]

Its a normal thing that a stick shift has some slop when it's in the gear. You will have to get the feel of some other cars to know if yours is not normal.

[stevedmc]

I finally went and bought one!

I'll be praying for you. Welcome to the family btw.

[jawn101]

Hi everyone, I am new to this board although I have been stalking through posts for the past several months now. I have always wanted to own a Delorean, and I've reached a point in my life where it's sort of a "now-or-never" type thing. My wife and I don't have any kids yet and she has fully supports me going after my dream car, so after a bit of research and patience, I finally went and bought one!

Anyways, one of the issues I'm noticing right off the bat is that the shifter feels a bit loose. When I place it into gear, I can still wiggle the stick up and down quite a bit, giving the feeling that it's not completely engaged. It also wiggles left and right, but to a lesser extent. The clutch and transmission themselves seem fine...no grinding or any weirdness while driving. Any ideas on what might be causing this, or is this normal for a Delorean? This is the only one I've ever driven so I have nothing to compare to!

Dustin

Also, what's your location and VIN? Always good to know :)

[stevedmc]

Could a loose shift linkage bolt cause what he is describing?

[jawn101]

Could a loose shift linkage bolt cause what he is describing?

I wouldn't think a loose bolt would affect play, since it's either a pivot point or it isn't. But I *do* think the lack of bushings around the pivot bolts would do it. It absolutely did in my car. I don't know why they were all gone - all 4 bushings and 8 half-sleeves just went Kaiser Soze on me. Probably some DPO BS, but whatever. Adding them back made a huge difference.

However, if you're in the linkage anyway, do check and make sure your pivot bolts are nice and tight :)

[Kenny_Z]

Check the rubber bushings in the linkage. When I first got Red the shifts felt soft and I found that one of my bushings was nearly worn away. It was an easy and cheap fix even though it's a bit uncomfortable under the car.

http://store.delorean.com/c-289-4-2-0-manual-shift-linkage.aspx

The part is number 8 on that page. I replaced all of mine at once even though only one looked bad.

[stevedmc]

Pretty soon someone will chime in and tell you to rebuild the transmission. You should ignore that advice and check the simple things first.

[eldusto84]

Thanks for the advice, I will take a look at the bushings this weekend and see what kind of shape they're in.

Oh, and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio and my VIN is 6272 :)

[Spittybug]

You can put that information on your profile so that anytime you post people will know where you are.

[mluder]

I think there was a video somewhere of how to adjust the linkage?

Someone will find it and post it I'm sure.

Welcome aboard.
Cheers.
Steve

[AdmiralSenn]

This one?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng6-l2fhPXw

[DMCMW Dave]

My guess is that he's comparing the shifter action to a modern Honda/BMW/Toyota etc. It won't ever be like that, although replacing all the rubber bushings can go a long way.

[Nicholas R]

You know since Martin showed the forward/back linkage in the frame it reminded me of something I had been wondering. The bellcrank assembly in the manuals is about twice as long on the shifter side so that the crank cuts the distance moved in half for the selector.
http://store.delorean.com/images/Product/medium/100549.JPG

If you switch over to pivot that the automatic transmissions uses, which instead of being 2:1 is 1:1, would you simply have an easy short throw shifter?
http://store.delorean.com/images/Product/medium/100824.JPG

Anyone ever try this?

Sorry, not trying to derail the thread.

[DMCMW Dave]

Anyone ever try this?

Sorry, not trying to derail the thread.

You would reduce the front/back motion (with appropriately increased effort and strain on the lever mechanism). You would have no impact on the side to side motion, so you would end up with an odd pattern with a short throw but wide pattern. I looked into it but never actually cut up a linkage bar to try it. (well - Peter K did but never actually installed it.) I thought about making a bar with multiple attachment points on the "long" side so that you'd end up with an adjustble shifter as well.

To make a true shortshifter you'd need to re-design the geometry of the cable part as well.

[mluder]

This one?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ng6-l2fhPXw

Yup... :thumbup:

Cheers.
Steve

[Nicholas R]

You would reduce the front/back motion (with appropriately increased effort and strain on the lever mechanism). You would have no impact on the side to side motion, so you would end up with an odd pattern with a short throw but wide pattern. I looked into it but never actually cut up a linkage bar to try it. (well - Peter K did but never actually installed it.) I thought about making a bar with multiple attachment points on the "long" side so that you'd end up with an adjustble shifter as well.

To make a true shortshifter you'd need to re-design the geometry of the cable part as well.

Got it. Didn't think about the side to side change. That would certainly get rather awkward. You'd definitely have to get creative to make the cable move further with less shifter movement. Not something I want to think about, haha. Thanks for the info!

[David T]

Very common for the rubber bushings to be worn. Replace them all, they are cheap. Also check the front, left transmission mount for cracks. I have seen where the shifter mechanism in the console is messed up from being forced. When that happens you can shift into reverse without having to gate into it. If you do not have to lift the gearshift knob to get reverse you need to fix the shifter. You should check all of the adjustments, a loose cable can make things feel very sloppy too. As with most things on a 30 year old car, it will make everything work better if you take it apart, clean it all up, lubricate and reassemble. Check the clutch fluid. If it is dark and thick you should flush the clutch and brakes. If you have the plastic hose it should be replaced with a S/S braided one.
David Teitelbaum

[eldusto84]

Ok so the shift linkage bushings are definitely bad and need to be replaced. But, how the heck does one even reach the darn things? The only space I see is the one small opening under the frame where the bellcrank is, and I can barely even get one hand in there! Is there an easy way to access all of that?

[Nicholas R]

Ok so the shift linkage bushings are definitely bad and need to be replaced. But, how the heck does one even reach the darn things? The only space I see is the one small opening under the frame where the bellcrank is, and I can barely even get one hand in there! Is there an easy way to access all of that?

If you remove the console and rubber dampener covering the shifter mechanism, you can unclip the cross shift cable and remove the 4 M6 bolts holding the mechanism in place and the entire shifter assembly will come up (if you've already removed the linkage from the bellcrank). I'm assuming this is the only way. I've only ever done it to a bare frame but I dont think having the body on would get in the way. You can install and remove the shifter mechanism with the first linkage rod still attached.

Once it's out, pull the pivot bolt, swap out both bushings and the little plastic sleeves and re-install. Then do the same for the linkage on the other side of the bellcrank.

On a side note, does anyone know what these two bolts are for?
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/2650/strangebolts.jpg

Looking back at when I did my transmission swap, I'm noticing that I definitely didn't have whatever that was:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/418340_10100419091349585_21412543_46146568_8531892 32_n.jpg