Picture of a Mondial shifter box -Front?

Anyone have any pics, and/or written procedure on how to gain access for inspection, and replace-- the front shift rod bushing? I thought I had my problem fixed by drilling out the original shift gate mounting screw holes and installing a couple of heli-coils.

But this very hot weekend in Northern California had me fuming over situations where it wouldn't engage in first without popping out, then it wanted to pop out of 3rd. All in all --- not a good experience. I'm thinking the front bushing is shot.

Any comments or help appreciated.

Geoman54

 

The threaded holes in the aluminum casting that houses the shift lever --- had pulled out. The previous owner had two different sized screws fitted with some kind of grey colored thread locking compound that had turned to goo and given up the task. Anyway---I drilled them oversize, tapped them, and inserted two heli-coils. When I buttoned everything back up and went to drive it (having already verified that I could engage each gear with a positive feel ---engine off) I found that first gear was not fully engaging, and letting the clutch out would cause it to pop out of gear. So -- I thought I needed a little more "fore/aft" adjustment in the shifter gate plate, and I drilled out the mounting holes in the plate slightly oversize. Buttoned it back up.

Everything was great, and I drove the car early afternoon this way on curvy back roads around the area -- using the gearbox through all gears and enjoying myself. But when the weather turned oppressively hot, and the pavement temp was probably approaching 120 degrees-- or more -- I started having difficulties engaging first and third. So I limped it home and tucked it away.

smg-2 ----I live in Martinez-- in the East Bay.

 

Two weeks ago I changed the gearbox oil to Redline at the same time I changed the motor oil to Mobil 1, and fitted the Iridium spark plugs.

This turnbuckle you are referring to. Which number item is it on the exploded view you sent over?

Thanks for your comments.

 

Scott,

Thanks for the response. I will get her up in the air tomorrow and take a peek. to answer the other question -- yes, the shifter tends to center itself just fine. And -- I will measure the gas tank cover panel.

this car was originally sold in Newport Beach, and is then a California-spec vehicle. I have a question for you guys about the air injection system. I had noticed a new sound at idle that almost sounded like a slight exhaust leak. An inspection found everything fine in that area, and the noise coming from the top of the engine --towards the rear. So --- after poking around with the engine running I isolated the noise to a broken plastic "T" near the oil cooler. It was the fitting from the air injection going to the one way valves on each engine bank.

The thing is-- when I removed it I found it had not snapped, but it had actually melted on one of the legs. I fitted a 3/4" diameter heater hose T and all is good now --but I'm suspecting I may have one of the one-way burp valves that is defective and is allowing heated exhaust back into the system. How else could it have melted? Is this T supposed to be metal instead of the plastic one I have installed?

Thanks to everyone for your comments.

Geoman54

 

Unfortunately, I live in a area in Northern California that is considered by the State Air Resources Board---an "enhanced region" --- meaning the smog test requirements are very strict. I look at all you guys making conversions to webers, turbo's, and blowers -- and can only dream about the possibilities.

I acquired this car from a guy that kept it on a Dealer plate the whole time he owned it, and never smogged it. I have taken great pains to learn about the CIS and replace components while fine -tuning it to have correct cold start-up and smooth driveability when warm, have a CAT fabricated around the new Maganaflow metal substrate hi-flow unit (which works great by the way) and had a local smog station do a pre-test at idle. The numbers look great. But-- I have to pass the rolling road part of the test also, and of course the visual inspection.

That's next weeks challenge.

So I couldn't think about removing stuff at this stage --- as much as I'd like to-- given a chance.

Geoman54

 

Finally had the chance to get the car on a lift today and was prepared to take off the under-panel to inspect the shift linkage. But before doing so I saw what I think is most likely the problem. The shift rod seal is leaking badly from the boot, it saturated the bushing on the selector shaft and the rubber is all gone. You can move the shift rod sideways about 1/8 of an inch, and about the same fore and aft-- without the selector rod budging. So that explains the inability to fully select the gears.

So-- can you guys tell me a source for the bushing and seal, and point me to a procedure for re-newing these parts? Pics would be great.

I guess I'll continue to remove the panel anyway and take a peek. By the way-- the measurement of the panel is 54 1/2 inches wide by 18 inches deep (for the guy that asked).

regards,

Geoman54

 

From what I've seen and read, the selector rod seals failing is quite common to the 3-series cars. I came up with a fix --until I can get the right parts. When I disconnected the long shift rod clevis from the transmission selector rod, the metalastic bushing was so shot that the inner sleeve came right out --the rubber all but gone. So I scraped out the remaining rubber and machined up a sleeve with the right od and id to slip over the existing inner one and pressed the assembly into the selector rod with a pair of Channel Locks. Then when I bolted things back up and cleaned out the gear lube from the selector rod boot --- it was time for a test drive. For the first time since I have owned this car the shifting was butter smooth. And the reverse lock-out feature also works correctly now --requiring a significant downward push on the shift lever to engage the reverse gate. So-- for those that may have the same situation, I can say that this fix works nicely. I suppose it may not be ideal in that it could transmit a bit more vibration up the shift linkage that is normally absorbed by the rubber/metal bushing. But I didn't notice anything objectionable.

thanks again to all with advice and comments,

Geoman54

 

If you want to pm me with a phone number I would be glad to walk you through it. It's really quite straight-forward.

regards,

Mike