308GTB shifter problems..

Well, this is strange, but I know we have had some shifter fork linkage adjustment threads before.......


I spilled some lemonade in my console gate and now my gear shifting is "sticky"...LOL!

No really, the only thing I did over the weekend was an engine oil change (Royal Purple 20-50W, using the FRONT drain plug!!)

But the shifter malfunction is as follows, VERY stiff suddenly going into R-1 slot, or later in the day the binding seemed to shift to the opposite side of the gate, the 4-5 slot. Now I can "Get it into gear" with a much greater than normal force, but I have lost the ease that was there, until only yesterday...once in 2-3, or any slot really it shifts easily only the "side to side" is binding...

Thoughts?

Will look for exposed linkage problems later once I have it in the air......I hate to think something has "slipped loose" inside the box itself with the selector forks, they are still "reaching the shafts" as It WILL engage a gear????

It really wasn't that much lemonade..

 

Tex,

Have you tried spraying it down with WD-40? That might 'replace' the lemonade...

Or, you can take the whole thing apart, replace any plastic or rubber parts, clean the rest, and spend about 8 hours on it..

Just a thought.

Mike in Kuwait

 

Well, I DO have ten quarts of used motor oil, where's my pump sprayer?

It took longer to clean off the driveway where I dropped the drain plug, and I got some on my new PUMA suede driving shoes now THEY have to go in for a cleaning and re-dye service...

If this car wasn't SO much fum, I'd sell them all!

You really don't see any of the linkage from above the console so I don't blame the juice....LOL!

 

Good thing they were dark brown "Munich"s, to start with..

 

How much lemonade? I cant see a small splish doing anything, but a good slosh might. Isnt the lemonade acidic and sugary? Odd it would mess up the side to side movement and not the fore and aft.

Before I would start ripping anything apart I would get a big syringe and with a hose (or maybe a thin copper tube) on it, try sucking any fluids up from the bottom of the shift box. Maybe squirt some atf fluid down there and then suck it back out a few times to try and flush it out and lubricate it? I took one apart, but the thing is so overbuilt there really isnt anything to wear out for probably 100 years. That and its a bugger to put back together.

More than likely your problem exists further aft, and the lemonade was just some wierd coincidence. Or you angered the spirits of Ferrari past and they will make you pay dearly. Scarey thought.

 

Thanks, oh deeply knowledgable one!

I'm going to dump a quart of the old oil into the shifter.....LOL!

I just wrote the lemonade for entertainment value..(had no recent "new babe" pics despite several new co-drivers) ..it didn't even make the gate I don't think.....but like you I know from reading the internal "selector fork adjustment" ia a tedious thing and had no idea what could make it go from "fine" to "not so fine in an instant other than a bolt working loose or something...

Maybe my yellow car will be fixed soon and I can give them the red car, while they finish the blue car.........they need to speed up or I need to slow down!!

 

You may be right about the gumminess though, as IF I push down, ala "reverse detent", I can slap it sideways into either slot, then front/rear movement is fine...and the reverse lockout is only on the plate, that's a strange symptom,eh?......

 

If it was out the back somewhere, pushing down should have no effect?

 

Side-to-side motion is controlled by a spring-loaded plunger that has a locating finger on it. This finger keys into the shifter stalk. When moving the shifter side-to-side, there is an angled gap caused between the plunger and the shifter that may have allowed the lemonade to seep down and wash out the grease.

I had a similar problem on my car a few years back but this was due to old, sticky grease.

Take a look at my photos below to see how the whole mechanism is put together. Let me tell you that after taking it apart and re-greasing everything, the thing was smoother than silk afterwards.

Do not be tempted to remove the plastic, cylindrical bushing on the bottom of the shifter stalk. It will break...
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Thanks for the pic, I was trying to remember without looking. No way you can syringe anything out of the bottom, its gotta be opened up.

 

I see, that's the top of that ball shaped casting I see, looking down from the top thru the gate.....I'm going to pull the gate push down on the shaft and pump it full of grease, will report back the results!

Thanks!

It looks like any binding on that rotary shift shaft along it's travel could cause my trouble as well but nothing I recall would have changed that....I just lifted the RR wheel enough to reach the oil plug and let it gently back down...

 

When my car sat for a few months mice pissed all down inside the mechanism and really had to hulk it just to get it to move side to side . . . flooded it in WD40 once I got 'er back on the road and taking the mechanism apart to clean it up is on my list . .. been working fine for 5 years now but I bet it will shift really smoothe once I take 'er apart.

Thought you were kidding about the lemonade or I would've piped in earlier.

Cheers,

Sean

 

unless your motor mounts are rotted out and hulking on the plug tweeked things a bit . .. just a thought

 

Yea the motor mount condition did cross my mind as a cause....trying not to think about it......where's that thread on the Summit Racing Mustang mounts??? LOL!

I was kidding as I don't thing the lemonade was the cause, as I constantly explain to people, just because you fix THIS on the car doesn't mean THAT won;t break next week! LOL!

Thanks, I just felt bad, manhandling the shifter to get home.....I have some high performance moly grease in a tube I'll try to work it into the lower housing box...that pic is a thousand words for sure..

The mice concentrated on the fuel lines on my car, during barn storage, they were some tough ones! LOL!

 

Pushing down on the lever shoves the ball out of the socket a bit, makes sense it would then move easier. The lemonade just gunked up the ball. Maybe you could push down and spray some carb cleaner/brake cleaner around the ball socket, then follow with some lube?

 

I think mice are "someone's" way of telling us our cars have sat too long . .. . just making lemonade from lemons

 

I had some light thread cutting oil but it had a magnesium warning, I'll try this other moly grease, I think you are right, thats why pressing down let's it move sideways!

I think I left all my WD-40 at Valeria's, my grease gun tubes too.......I need to get that stuff but not this week!

I have the moly grease in my apartment kitchen, that's my new Shop Area now, you should see my welding on the speedboat seats! LOL!

 

Oh yea, definately..that was the blue car that ran from Hurricane Katrina...sat so long the clutch stuck, the rotors rusted over and I lost the fuel lines!

We did all the rubber and it rolled well enough into town, the clutch it turns out was about gone so it's in now for all that stuff.....and of course belts and tensioner bearings!

I have my son driving now learning in his Honda, and lil' Amanda is terrorizing parking lots in the 6 speed Trans Am, won't be too long before my Vintage Racing Team takes shape! LOL!

 

I don't know from any first hand knowledge myself, but out at Bob's, WD-40 was taboo around airplanes. Supposedly its very corrosive to aluminum, and the FAA inspector didnt want to see a can of the stuff anywhere in the shop. I dont recall anything else that they had as much of a problem with.

 

Thanks, yea I'm not much of a fan of it myself...maybe that why I wasn't too worried to 'lose' it in the seperation!

Poor penetrant, not a very good lubricant long term......good for squeaky doors!

 

Wow . . .. well it's less corrosive than the sweat from my hands so I'll continue to use it for now . .. if I don't wipe down parts with it before I get them anodized, my fingerprints get etched in them after just 24 hrs and if I use anything else the anodizer cries about it contaminating the tank . . my point being using nothing is worse if corrosion is the concern from what I've seen.

edit: and it's gotta be better than rat piss or lemonade as a lubricant . .. maybe?

 

Please be careful taking the shifter apart AND MOVING the shift shaft in the process.

I did that to clean 26 years worth of jungle critters and dino poop out of the bottom of my shift lever and wound up having to drop the xmission pan and realign EVERYTHING in the box to get it right again.

Just a word to the wise as I have been there and done that.

Good Luck,

 

Thanks Mark! That's exactly what I was trying to figure out, what had caused this malfunction...LOL!

I know to go from Step 1 is a big deal, that's why I roll my eyes at the "pull the engine" crowd, on a 308GTB......let's DON'T go there!

Appreciate you chiming in.....

As also mentioned above, failing motor mounts will cause this, I was going there next if a "Lube Job" into the shifter box doesn't get the love flowing!

 

Tex,

You're welcome. Love to help others as I have been helped.

My shifter cleaning escapade cost me about $200 and a lost summer of driving (I can only work on my car 2-4 hours per week, tops) by the time I was done cleaning the shifter and unscrewing it all.

REALLY, do not misalign (fold, bend, twist, spindel or mutilate (meaning rotate or push in or out the shift shaft)) a thing from the moment you seperate the shifter from the shift shaft until you put it back in and tighten CAREFULLY. While you disconnect it and reconnect it to the shift shaft you do so with the percission of a brain surgeon or you WILL become a tranny mechanic ---I PROMISE. Oh, and while your in the xmission ................... get my drift?

Again, Good Luck Buddy!!

 

I'm just going to leave it bolted together and try to grease it up some in place, my back up car should be ready soon and I'll swap!