Gear stick will only select 3rd and 4th

[dg2642]

Hi...my first post and its really an "is it worth it" question regarding costs as my 15 year old looser cruiser which has been great but fairly costly over the years is approaching its umpteenth MOT. Today, all of a sudden and no clangs or bangs my gear stick became stiff as I was driving and as I came to a roundabout I quickly discovered I could only select 3rd or 4th. Am now parked on my drive where it might remain as I can't select reverse!
Is it worth me taking me old faithful one more time to the local ford dealer...I suspect this will be a gearbox out and strip down albeit simply to replace a snapped selector bolt or something as simple as that.
A sad day!

[Steveselvage]

This is really common, it's the gear selector rod that the cables clip to on the gearbox.
Remove battery and tray and shove everything else out of the way, locate where the cables connect, it's the blue one your concerned with.
Try spraying the rod with loads of wd 40 and get someone to try to move the gear stick side to side.
If that don't fix it then carefully prise the cable off the small balljoint and once out of the way you can use a long bar to gently tap the selector rod to free it, if you tap it down and it seems stuck reconnect the cable and use the gear stick movement to pull it back.
This is not the way the pros do it but I've done three like this and all are still ok many months after.
If you're close to southampton ill do it

[dg2642]

Thanks for your offer to do it mate but am up in Cumbria....will give it a go over the next week...struggling to find the time...and will let you know how I get on....appreciate your help...thanks....been looking at the new Mercedes A180 Diesel as a replacement cos we don't need a big bus now everyone's fled the nest but if I can get the Galaxy running and through an MOT then maybe someone will give me a couple hundred beer tokens for it!

[dg2642]

Had a go at this yesterday and quickly realised if I undid the 4 large bolts on the battery tray the gearbox would fall...but after supporting the box and getting the tray finally out...bit of a fiddly git especially all the plastic fairing around the battery housing....I located the 2 cables and sprayed both with liberal amounts of WD40 but gear stick still wouldn't move laterally...so played around with both cable ends and lo and behold something happened cos all of a sudden it was all back to normal....not sure if it was just w40 doing its magic or if something that was in the way of the lateral movement had somehow freed up and dislodge it...but hey...happy days...drove to work today and all ok thus far...thank you Steveselvage...I would have written the ol gal off if it wasn't for your suggestions...many thanks 8)

[Mirez]

Cheap fix, always good!

[alexk]

Wish I'd seen this sooner! Had exactly the same symptoms and have just replaced gearbox with a 2nd hand one at a cost if €450!!

[i7555p]

Hello
I'm a new member, just having my first read through,

I had a simillar problem except the lever could move from right to left but would not select reverse and 5th, 1 to 4 were ok aalthough it didn't feel right. My local garage said something broken in the gearbox, rebuild, replace or scrap my beloved 1999 car.

I drove around carefully making sure I didn't need reverse til the weekend had a look my self and found that they hadn't looked properly! the outer of one of the cables had corroded away so it didn't push and pull properly. I fitted a pair of new cables and all was well. I drove back to garage and gave them a.............

Something look out for.

Regards

Ian

[Chrispb]

Hello Ian 

It's good to get one over the garages well done M8

[sspearce]

Hi i am a new member and know how you feel after reading this post,i to lost all gears bar 3 and 4 thought it would be a costly gearbox ,but luckily i have a mechanic dad who sorted it the way you did ,he ids old school and likes to try things first before replacing,so may be it will save a lot more peoples money by reading this

Sarah