Twisted shifter rod

carl

carl

True Classic
I have been chasing a gearbox problem for a few years. Could rarely get reverse and hardly get fifth. I had played with the shifter linkage untold times. Took the car up to my two favorite Fiat repair hobbyists to sort even if it meant a gearbox teardown since things had gotten so bad that neither gear could be found.

A day later they called to say it was fixed. I asked what it was and they said the linkage was not adjusted properly since the lever was not straight up in neutral. I knew for a fact I had adjusted that correctly so was confused.

Turns out I means straight up in neutral front to back, just as the manual says. The guys meant straight up side to side, something we never check since that is not an adjustable issue. Turns out my shift rod was TWISTED. Which would certainly explain why I had to move the lever to the right beyond shifter limits to hunt for those gears. Vice grips "adjusted" the twist and now both gears are easy to find.

Something to ad to your to do list when doing shifter adjustments when you can't get 5th/reverse or even problems getting 1st/second.
 
hey years ago, I had my transmission rebuilt by someone, and it was never right, sent it over to shadetree enginetrics here in TX and they got it sorted out, but always had a 4rth gear whine, that eventually turned into a "tick" so I bravely took it apart myself. turns out I had the smaller gears from two different year transmissions that the first guy replaced, and it actually worked for several years, until it broke a tooth. Man that whine was aggravating
 
carl said:
I have been chasing a gearbox problem for a few years. Could rarely get reverse and hardly get fifth. I had played with the shifter linkage untold times. Took the car up to my two favorite Fiat repair hobbyists to sort even if it meant a gearbox teardown since things had gotten so bad that neither gear could be found.

A day later they called to say it was fixed. I asked what it was and they said the linkage was not adjusted properly since the lever was not straight up in neutral. I knew for a fact I had adjusted that correctly so was confused.

Turns out I means straight up in neutral front to back, just as the manual says. The guys meant straight up side to side, something we never check since that is not an adjustable issue. Turns out my shift rod was TWISTED. Which would certainly explain why I had to move the lever to the right beyond shifter limits to hunt for those gears. Vice grips "adjusted" the twist and now both gears are easy to find.

Something to ad to your to do list when doing shifter adjustments when you can't get 5th/reverse or even problems getting 1st/second.
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Hey Carl, just to be sure I understand correctly. Your shift selector rod (the long one in the tunnel) was physically twisted; as in the metal rod was bent/turned/rotated end to end? And that placed the shift lever (inside the car) out of centerline (left/right)? So relative to the trans selector (at the lollipop), things weren't lined up correctly?

If I'm correct, I wonder how it got twisted. It doesn't matter, but curious. None the less it makes sense for what you experienced and not something I'd think to check for...thanks for sharing. Kudos to the guys that spotted it. ;)
 
Never heard of twisted shifter.

Have heard of
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I'm kind of guessing Carl meant a bent shifter, like the stick shift. If over the years it was cranked on to hunt for gears, maybe it would be bent. And if it's bent, when you try to reset everything the reference is all off. When I read the shifter adjustment steps, I took shifter centered meaning front to back and left and right. It has to move in both axes to pick the right gears.
 
carl said:
I have been chasing a gearbox problem for a few years. Could rarely get reverse and hardly get fifth. I had played with the shifter linkage untold times. Took the car up to my two favorite Fiat repair hobbyists to sort even if it meant a gearbox teardown since things had gotten so bad that neither gear could be found.

A day later they called to say it was fixed. I asked what it was and they said the linkage was not adjusted properly since the lever was not straight up in neutral. I knew for a fact I had adjusted that correctly so was confused.

Turns out I means straight up in neutral front to back, just as the manual says. The guys meant straight up side to side, something we never check since that is not an adjustable issue. Turns out my shift rod was TWISTED. Which would certainly explain why I had to move the lever to the right beyond shifter limits to hunt for those gears. Vice grips "adjusted" the twist and now both gears are easy to find.

Something to ad to your to do list when doing shifter adjustments when you can't get 5th/reverse or even problems getting 1st/second.
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I noticed the same thing on my car when I replaced the lollipop back in February. The forward end of the old lollipop had a slight twist to it, presumably put there to center the shift lever side to side. Rather than putting the same twist in the new lollipop, I got a pair of plates (#20 below) machined with a wedge shape to them. 3.5° centered the shifter nicely.

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Kendall said:
When I read the shifter adjustment steps, I took shifter centered meaning front to back and left and right. It has to move in both axes to pick the right gears.
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I agree with this; both axis should be centered to align it properly for the throw fore/aft and side/side. And I believe this was Carl's point, he had one dimension centered but not the other. However I did not read his comment as a bent shift lever (inside the car).

On other makes of cars they give a specific dimensional gap to set the shift lever relative to its surrounding gate in order to achieve a proper adjustment in this respect. Some even have a factory tool that is a measurement guide to place the lever correctly. I suppose something similar could be made up to assist in aligning the X's lever if desired.
 
My intent of the post was to let you guys know that if you can't get gears other than 3 and 4 that this may be the problem. The boys said the rod (the long shift rod in the upper tunnel) was "twisted" and that the shift lever was not vertical in a left to right orientation. There is no adjustment for this and not discussed anywhere so most of us never think to even check it. I use an angle tool to verify fore and aft vertical adjustment. The boys said it takes two people, one in the driver seat to hold the shift lever oriented vertical (left to right) and one at the lollipop to verify twist. I was not at the shop, sadly, so don't actually know where the twist was but assume the flat end may have been the problem as that's much easier to deform than the tube portion. I think they said it was fixed with vice grips.

This was a rotational deformation, not a longitudinal bend. Funny, I compared the rod to a spare one I had to make sure there was no bend but never even considered any twist deformation...which in hindsight should have occurred to me given the problem.

The mechanic of this duo is simply amazing at finding issues like this. I think of all the posts about not being able to get 5th and reverse and wonder how many folks actually had this problem.
 
Jonohhh said:
Close enough! That (whatever is going on there, I have no clue lol) doesn't appear to be particularly straight either.
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You've never heard of glam rock? Not really a fan, but that was typical of late 70's early 80's bands along with the 'big' hair 😄 - not sure Twisted Sister considered themselves that, but they sure weren't "Metal"
 
ng_randolph said:
The forward end of the old lollipop had a slight twist to it, presumably put there to center the shift lever side to side.
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Yup, I remember doing that a few times to get the action right. I think I used an adjustable wrench snugged down on the flat surface and a set of channel locks to hold the tube, then impart the twist.

I suspect that FIAT intended for this to be the mode of adjustment for side-to-side position. Hey, it was the 1970s in Italy. That was probably good enough.
 
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