Wobbly gear lever

Post Fri Sep 30, 2005 7:49 pm

Despite fitting what should have been the z3 short shift lever, my box is a lot more wibbly than my last car which I did exactly the same mod on. Does this point to a very worn bush somewhere or is it likely they have changed the levers (they did say that the part numbers have changed, so god knows what I've ended up with!)

It still feels a lot longer throw, could that be a bush or is it defo the wrong lever??

Post Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:04 pm

If you've just changed the lever, you'll want to change the bush too, as described in the articles section...

Post Fri Sep 30, 2005 8:30 pm

Yeah, changing to the short-shift lever wont make a wibbly gear change much less wibblier (new word for today!)

You probably need to change the bush at the front end of the gear-change mechanism, right up near the top of the gearbox. Let me tell you though, it's not a fun job! Took me bloody ages, but it was worth it.

Post Fri Sep 30, 2005 9:24 pm

when changing mine i noticed the bush i was supplied (wrong!) had an oval hole, rather than the round hole i'd hoped for. this was essentially to 'give' play in the forward/backward direction.

in the end, i kept the existing one but tightened it with a squeeze in a vice!

did you replace the socket on the bottom of the gearstick? this part and the bottom of the stick were the cause of 90% of the play i had.

i did have 3" left/right and 2" forward/backward play while in gear before a rebild, i now have 1/2" if that... not perfect but a massive improvement. i replaced everything as per E30adam's rebuild guide with the exception of the gearbox bush, as mentioned.