Gearlever problems

P

pedalpusher

New Member
Please be gentle with me as this is my first post. But I am really stuck.

I have owned my P6 3500S for nine years but have just started recommissioning her after a five year lay up where life just got in the way. I have got her running but when I came to move her I had problems selecting gears. The gear lever was all floppy, I had this problem years ago and had the gear lever bush changed.

This time round I took the lever out and there was no bush in the selector. The car is a late 72 and has a short lever, with a metal acorn. I ordered a selector rod sleeve part number 90622363 and also a new lever 599686 with a plastic acorn. The new sleeve was just too tight to fit in the selector rod. Foolishly I tried reducing the size by carefully sandpapering and filing. I got it to fit but then it must have been too weak and it broke up. Now I really don't know what to do, the bushes are expensive, the new long lever with the plastic acorn is too loose in the selector rod and even then I am stuck as to how it all goes back together. The haynes and factory rover manual don't seem to clear to me.

All the specialists have been very helpful, but I just seem to have the wrong mix of parts, Can anyone point me in the right direction please.
 
Thank you for the quick reply and the helpful diagram. The bush matches the part number I have and this was purchased from Wadhams. My original gear-lever does indeed have a metal acorn, so all seems well except the bush was too tight for the selector fork.

Any ideas appreciated please as I can't move the car now.
 
pedalpusher said:
The car is a late 72 and has a short lever, with a metal acorn.
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Something wrong there, as only the long gearlever had the metal acorn on the bottom AFAIK, all the short ones and the first of the long ones were plastic.
 
Thank you for the further advice. I have been back out to the car again today. My short original lever once cleaned up revealed a plastic acorn, albeit with a couple of chunks out of it. My new long lever also has a plastic acorn.

A few more questions please:-

1) Are the selector rings all the same?

2) The new bush is too tight for the selector ring, is there a trick to fitting?

3) Can I use my new long lever in place of the old short one (I also have the new plastic sleeve and all the measurements seem the same?

4) Should the acorn be a tight fit in the bush?

I have attempted to upload some photos of the two levers, the bush I destroyed trying to fit and the selector ring as seen from inside the car.

Thank you in anticipation.
 

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The gearlevers with the plastic acorn don't have the bush in the selector rod, that's why you're having difficulty fitting the bush. You can use the long lever in place of the short one.
 
Ah, thank you, that is why the bush didn't fit, and why it was not there.. This was driving me mad and I was just going to order another expensive bush.

If I may keep asking silly questions and testing your patience, my original problem was a gear lever that was flopping all over the place and difficulty selecting gears. The acorn is much smaller in diameter than the hole in the selector ring, any idea what my problem is please? Do I need a gear lever with a metal acorn?

Also in the back of my mind years ago, I am sure a garage said they changed 'a bush' in the gear lever when I had a simular problem, and after that I drove around for years with a lovely gear-change...until now.
 
The acorn isn't exactly the same size as the hole although it should be a close-ish fit. If you fit a gearlever with the metal acorn you need to fit the selector rod that has the bush in it otherwise it's running metal to metal. The normal thing that wears in addition to the gearlever is the selector striker lever, which is attached to the front end of the selector rod, and the bushes in the remote housing that the selector rod runs through. If the spherical seat for the gearlever itself is worn that will also cause the same thing.
 
Thank you. With the knowledge that you supplied I will have a crack at putting it back together again, using the new long lever and no bush.

Is there any info or links with an idot guide to how the pivot bush and all the bits and pieces go back together, my haynes and Rover manual don't seem to have the info in enough detail to reassemble.

Kind Regards

Steve
 
pedalpusher said:
Is there any info or links with an idot guide to how the pivot bush and all the bits and pieces go back together, my haynes and Rover manual don't seem to have the info in enough detail to reassemble.
Click to expand...

If you mean the two ally housings that fit top and bottom of the spherical seat on the gearlever, and the flat plate with the boot on it (shown in your pic) then you just need to get the top ally casting the correct way around so that the detent on the sleeve works so reverse only engages when the sleeve is lifted, and the lowre casting has the seat engaged in the cut out, and both those sit on top of the flat plate. If you look in the parts book (where most of the illustrations give a very good view of how things go together) then the illustration for that particular area is all the wrong way around and upsidedown, so don't look at that. Chances are if it's in the WM or the Haynes, it's wrong in there too.
 
Waking this thread up - similar problem - floppy gearchange. End of long lever looks to have lost its acorn. Car is a 74 chassis suffix D.
uOT5UBN.jpg

Got an acorn from Wins. Fits lever nicely. Fat part of lever where acorn goes is 0.5" dia. OD at fat point of acorn fitted is 0.8" . No chance at all that it will fit into the selector shaft cup - testing with a socket extension indicates hole is close to 0.62". Selector shaft cup is all metal, so should have a plastic acorn. Eventually, as a stop gap I have fitted a piece of plastic from a silicon gun nozzle, and the fit is very good now. Glued it in place with epoxy steel, more in hope than real expectation.
Whats going on here? Anybody know the diameter of the metal acorn on those levers please?
thanks
 
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I am also having trouble with difficult gear change - mainly 2nd gear. My gear lever has a brass acorn but there is no bush in the selector shaft cup and the acorn is quite loose. The diameter of the cup is 21mm (about .62"). I was advised that the plastic bush wouldn't fit my setup so I've fitted a copper sleeve into the cup, (modified a plumbing fixture) which has fixed the looseness but is still metal to metal. One thing I have realised with these manual gear levers is that very small adjustments when setting them up make a big difference to the gear change smoothness. I've tried to follow the procedure in the manual eg setting the lever angle to 10 degrees etc. But there is still looseness in the shaft as the front and rear support bushes are worn. The front bush is obtainable - at a rather eye-watering price but the rear bush doesn't get a mention. In the picture the rear bush goes inside the metal retainer cap which has the 4 rubber washers holding it. Hope you can see in the picture where I have marked the place:Gearbox cross shaft.jpg
Another thing I have discovered is that if you put the selector lever on with the bolt head on the left instead of the right you can access it from under the car instead of going through the cutout in the side of the tunnel.
 
Anyway while i'm waiting for the bush to arrive from the UK I can do all the other jobs, window rubbers, heater refurb, clock, electronic ignition kit etc etc etc....the list goes on and on and on
 
Sadly 21mm is closer to 0.82", not 0.62(close to 5/8"), which would probably fit the plastic acorn I have . Took me a minute realize ypou have a 4 cyl gearbox there.
 
While you are in the area, the condition of the bushes 66 and 67 affect greatly the quality of the gearchange. Normally after all those years they are almost non-existent (they are also in a very difficult to access place) and every time you try to select a gear the gear lever plate moves forwards or backwards and you get slopy / rubbery feeling.
In my car i have the steady (57) fixed solidly to the gearbox (fitted some metal spacers instead of the rubbers 66 and 67) and used some sorbothane rubber bushes to isolate the gear lever plate from the tunnel. Now the gearchange action is really precise and pleasant, without any NVH issues within the cabin.
 
Revisiting! My comment above about the size of the Wins acorn is wrong - off the lever the acorn is 20.5mm at the fattest point, so if the hole in the selector shaft is 21mm it should be a good fit. Since Peter has a 4cyl, can anybody confirm that the V8 S selector hole is the same size - 21mm - please?
thanks
 
jp928 said:
Since Peter has a 4cyl, can anybody confirm that the V8 S selector hole is the same size - 21mm -
Click to expand...

Gearlevers are interchangeable so the hole in the rod should be the same, the only variance is the very late rod with the bush in it.
 
Bit annoyed by vague references to 'late' models in the parts book....'late' compared to what? Which years or chassis suffixes fit 'late'? The reason I ask is that my lever has an end that needs an acorn added to it, but the selector shaft has some sort of bush in it that means the acorn wont fit. Said bush protrudes out the bottom of the hole in selector shaft, and has a visible ridge around the bottom. There is no ridge visible at the top. IF, big IF, I push the bush out, and fit the acorn, will my selection improve, or am I in bigger trouble than before?
 
The selector rod with the bush is the "late" type and needs to be used with the later gearlever with the metal acorn on the bottom.
 
Yes, but.....did the selector rod change for the metal acorn levers, from that used with plastic acorns, or did they just add the bush to suit the metal acorn? Either my lever (needing a plastic acorn) is wrong for the bashed selector rod, OR, the selector rod has erroneously had a bush forced into it to try to make up for the lost acorn..??? The parts book shows both lever and selector rod 'late' versions...
 
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