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MG MGF Technical - Gear Linkage

Hi everyone,

just a quick question regarding my 1997 MGF, was driving yesterday and suddenly I was unable to change gear, the gear stick is now really loose. I have taken the gator off the stick and it seems that the linkage is broken.

The car is now on my driveway and I am unable to get it in gear, it has been making a single clicking noise for the past 3 weeks when i pull away in first gear, and also does the same when reversing, i assumed that something on the exhaust was loose.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone knew what price I would be looking at to get the gear linkage repaired/replaced ? I have phoned a couple of garages who said its quite a big job ?

Cheers

John
John

John

?? Linkage or Cables?

I know that a gear change mech was recently repaired in a hotel car park in Germany on this years Treffen - so not a small job but OK if you know what you are doing. Quite a lot of the centre console comes out and possibly the rear t-bar and cubby boxes to get nea the back end.

SF may be along a bit later as he is quite adept at stripping and rebuilding Fs in unusual circumstances.

If cable has gone then I understand that there is a bit of a supply constraint at the moment.
John Ponting

Plenty of stuff in the archives. Yes it is a significant piece of work involving draining down the cooling system (4hrs sounds familiar).

Don't want to be alarmist but...

My F was in for service just last week at an independent specialist. I asked about the parts situation, he said availability had never been better - with the exception of gear linkage cables. He cannot get any at the moment.
Trevor Hobden

To access the linkage you need to remove the T-bar, cubby boxes, centre fasia and the complete centre console trim. This took Andy, Dave S & myself a good 2 hours to remove, fix the linkage and replace everything.
Unfortunately the cost will depend upon what has actually broken and how much work is involved to gain access to the broken bit and replace it, so its impossable to know how much it will cost until the car is taken appart.

FYI the prices for a gear change cable from B&G is £ 75.56 inc. (price is the same for the long and short cables)
Steve W

Valter's gear cable instructions are here: http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/common_problems/gearbox_cable.html

For some reason, the short gearbox cables are very hard to get hold of right now.

Have a chat to X-Part (contact details are on the MGF Register website: http://www.mgfregister.org/)
Rob Bell

Get someone to check what happens at the gearbox end when you waggle the gear lever. If one of the cables doesn't move, it is definitely broken, but there are other cause much cheaper to put right.

You may just find that the rose joint has pulled apart (in which case pop it back on again), or more likely, you have lost the spring clip and cotter pin connecting the bell crank to a rod that disappears into the gearbox, These are cheap and simple to replace, once you have the back end safely in the air.

Chris
Chris

This thread was discussed on 21/09/2005

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