Sticky gears

[Astro-Creep]

I've got sticky gears in my 1996 Corsa Merit. It's got 120000+ miles on the clock so I'm not all that surprised.

It started as just first. I couldn't put it into first whilst the car was moving - at any speed. Now I know you're gonna say 'why do you need first when you're already moving?', so don't say it. Now, in the 3 months I've had it (as a replacement for my old 1984 Ford Fiesta Popular Plus which had nigh on 300,000 miles on the clock and drove appallingly, I ended up letting my dad's mate use it for banger racing! Glorious!) the problem has spread to second and third, just not as bad as first. My girlfriend physically can't put it into those three gears, and I (a 6'4'' rugby player) have tremendous difficulty sometimes. However, sometimes it'll slip in nice and easy.

I've had conflicting diagnoses from guys at work (I'm an apprentice engineer so I assume these guys know what they're talking about) they seem to think either my gear box is on it's way out so all I can do is hold tight, not crunch the gears and keep it well oiled. Or, it's my clutch and the plates aren't freeing up properly.

Any similar occurances and if so any advice?

[green_machine]

what to do is get a baby wipe and rub the whole stick down to remove stickyness. open windows to allow a cool, steady flow of air in the car which will help the drying process.

[Saralo]

Sorry but are you too that seriously down?

Or is your car just a proper shed???

Wipes.....Green go take ya head for a shake mate

[T10NY-R]

does it go into gear when its not running, can u move it about the box , just needs a lil bit of looobing surely ?

[Astro-Creep]

Yeh it goes in easily when its idle. And it's easy when I rev the engine a little which makes me lean more towards the clutch theory. When I say sticky, I mean it sticks as I try and put it into gear, like there's some sort of resistance.

[kaz]

sycncromesh might be on its way out for maybe the linkages are a bit loose

[Astro-Creep]

Yeh I checked the linkage arm and there's a nylon bushing with a chunk out of it, I don't suppose that could be the cause?

[kaz]

thats most likely the cause yes

[paterson_uk]

had a similar problem on mine if you model is a cable clutch then you can adjust it only do about 3 turns clockwise on the adjuster located ontop of the gearbox housing

[prawny12009]

plus 1 for adjusting the clutch cable, the clutch is probably dragging making it hard to get in and out of gear and crunching soo the cable needs some slack taking out matey,

i bet the clutch bites realy low down doesn't it

At that sort of mileage your gonna need to change the gearbox oil too, you will be surprised at the differance in noise and gear change smoothness. you will need 1.6l of 80w gear oil two one litre bottles should be no more than about £15,

the drain point is normaly on the gearbox sump on vauxhalls and the filling hole is on the top by the gear linkage (under plastic cap), to check the oil level you will need to remove the bolt that is behind the n/s drive shaft, if no oil comes out then add more untill it does, the level hole is normaly hidden by the sub frame and is hard to get too on vauxhalls so i just fill to the level in the book tbh a little extra oil isn't going to hurt.