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MG MGF Technical - Help with Gear Problems Please

Hi.

Disaster struck today.. engaging reverse gear today (with normal crunch), but this time reverse gear failed to appear and the gear lever went all the way back to touch the edge of the lever surround.. Not good methinks.

Gear lever now only moves forward and backwards (touching edge of surround each time), car stuck in a gear and there is no sideways movement when clutch is pressed down.

Mechanic/Britania rescue called.. Now car sitting on forecourt of Eastern Rover in Chelmsford. Britania guy thought it could be one of the gear linkage cables (or something like that.. I was too busy fuming to take it all in.)

Could this be the case and, if so, what sort of price would I be looking at?

Thanks All..

Jon..

99 VVC Tahiti Blue.
Jon

Jon, try simplest and cheapest solution first, the gear cable retaining clip, this is at the rear end of the car where the cables meet the 'bell crank' (;-))
There is a clip that retains the cable which can come adrift. Then check if the cable has snapped, the lower cable is the usual suspect. If these seem OK then remove gear gaiter and investigate the linkages here.
Good luck.
Mike.
mike

thnk mike, a good tip for us to bear in mind.

My first instainct is "this could be the end of the car" but I've been driving for almost 40 years and I've only really lost one in that time.
John Ponting

Thanks for the advice Mike.. As I haven't a clue when it comes to mechanics, this sounds as though it would be best left to someone who knows what they're doing.

I guess it might give me a bit of Ammo when it comes to discussion with the garage tomorrow.

Regards,
Jon.

John.. I hope the 'this could be the end of the car' comment wasn't aimed at my baby!!! :)
Jon

Jon

NO NO NO just my normal pessimism whenever anything happens to my cars :-)
John Ponting

Garage has phoned and they're unable to even look at the car until July 24. Any suggestions anyone?

Cheers All
Jon.
Jon

Jon,

Where abouts are you in Essex?

I may be able to pop down and have a look for you.

SF
Scarlet Fever

Jon,
Just to warn you in advance, I had gear selection problems which resulted in replacement of gear cables first, followed by a new gearbox being fitted.
Total cost of £1500 !!!
Luckily it was all done under my warranty!
Mike

Car's now on its way to Braintree Jones of Rayne. Can get the car sorted on Wednesday.. which is a lot better than the two weeks by Eastern.

SF:
Home is Chelmsford.. Chelmer Village, which was why Eastern was the preferred choice considering I could walk there.
How's the castle?

Regards All,
Jon.,
Jon

I can see it from my office (the office is in Lower Street) - quite bizzarre sometimes actually, i'll be sitting in my office and i'll notice a deer walking passed the castle stockade - the best one though is the Peacocks, there are at least three of them and a few times a year they escape and wander aimlessly up and down the road causing traffic chaos! :-)

----

Jones are my local dealership, they are OK. Eastern is where i bought the ZS from, they are also OK.

Fingers crossed it is just the gear cable retaining clip (its fairly common and very cheap to replace). Lower cable is the next most common failure, this is around the £50.00 mark (or it was when my last one went) and can be a bit pricey due to the labour involved to fit it. It is not a straightforward job, access to the cable is a bit of a pain.

Picture of the cable and gear selector can be found on the SOS site:

>> http://www.sfforever.co.uk/viewgallerypicture.asp?id=18-24-64-65-66-67-68-69-70-71-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-80-81-82-83-84-85-86-87&queryon=15 <<

>> http://www.sfforever.co.uk/viewgallerypicture.asp?id=19-24-64-65-66-67-68-69-70-71-72-73-74-75-76-77-78-79-80-81-82-83-84-85-86-87&queryon=15 <<

Just for interest really.

Good Luck.

SF
Scarlet Fever

UPDATE.. and painful at that.

Garage seems to think that both cables have snapped, with a possible chance of the selector being damaged too.

Get this: £526 to replace cables.
£570 to replace cables & selector.

WHAT?!?! I know MG labour charges are excessive, but this seems outrageous to me!

Any suggestions before I phone my bank manager?

Cheers, Jon.
Jon

The chances of both cables snapping at exactly the same time are extremely slim. I would get a second opinion.
Spyros Papageorghiou

Spyros
Thanks for the advice.. will look into getting another opinion on it..

Jon.
(currently counting his pennies)
Jon

Had both my cables replaced by an MGR dealer exactly three years ago for £347.41 inc VAT. Both cables were replaced because it was considered that if one had worn and snapped, the other may be on its way. Cost of cables was £50.93 each and clips £1.05 each.

Bruce
Bruce Caldwell

Jon,

Don't let MGR do the job for that price! I never heard about both cables snapping simultaneously...

Try Rob's web page if you want to go to a very cheap DIY solution.

Keep us posted!

Valter.
Valter

Not good. :-(

Are your prices inclusive of parts? (I assume they are, but it looks like they are either fitting the new selector for free, or only charging you the labour to fit the selector). Not sure how much a new selector is, but a £44.00 difference doesn't seem to me to be enough for the new part and MGRs labour rates.

Most of the price they are quoting is labour, to get to the cables and selector you need to strip out a large part of the interior, and MG state that the rear subframe needs to be dropped as well to change the upper cable at the gear box end. There was a thread on here a while ago that detailed a replacement method that avoided the need to drop the subframe, IIRC it was Spyros or Valter that discovered this, it is probably worth checking the archives for it.

My offer of help is still there. I am approx 6 miles from Jones, in the 'wilderness' between there and Great Dunmow. I have never changed a cable before, but i have fitted a new gear selector (Mike Satur's SSK). I have also stripped out the entire interior of an F before so i have a fair idea of what is involved.

Thier price still seems a little excessive to me, bearing in mind i don't know much about the gearbox end of the job, i cant see it taking more than 4 or 5 hours*, 5 x at say £50.00 an hour = £250.00, plus parts, say £100.00 for cables = £350.00

Add a further £175.00 for the selector (this is the cost of one of Mike's SSK2s) = £525.00

IMO, you should get both cables and the selector done for the £526.00 figure (all plus VAT).

SF

* = 45 minutes for the trim removal, 45 minutes for the gearbox / subframe prep work, the same to put this stuff back, giving up to 2 hours for the cable and selector swap (my selector took 20 minutes to fit).
Scarlet Fever

Search for gear selector cable in:

http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/

Cheers,Valter.
Valter

Pocket is now £609.17 lighter.. Ouch.

And they noticed that I have an oil leak on the cam cover gasket - serious?

Cheers for your advice all.

And pleased to be out of the 214.

Jon.
Jon

This thread was discussed between 06/07/2003 and 15/07/2003

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