Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

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Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby Dowds » Sun 08.05.2016, 17:10

I wonder if someone could help?
I bought a 1990 SE in February. Absolutely love it.
This afternoon I was driving up to a junction and couldn't get into 1st, 3rd or 5th gears (so the gears at the top).
2nd an 4th are fine an it drives fine in both
Any thoughts as to what is wrong?
Many thanks!
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Re: Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby Fredjohn » Sun 08.05.2016, 17:47

It's probably the fore-and-aft cable, it has either broken or become detached from the selector at the gearbox end or from the bottom of the gearlever.
Check gearbox end first as it has easier access than the lever end. Get someone to change gear whilst you watch what happens under the bonnet.

If you need to replace one, I recommend you buy BCN's cables together with his short shift mod. See his thread on here. They are high quality replacements and give a really good feel to the change, a revelation in fact.
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Re: Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby tb10 » Sun 08.05.2016, 19:53

:agree:
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Re: Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby dapinky » Sun 08.05.2016, 20:05

This happened to me recently - it was only when I went to fit a 'new' set of S2 cables that I found it was merely the plastic locking collar on the gearbox end of the cables (where it passes through the bracket on top of gearbox) which had become undone.

Simply turning it through 60 degrees to lock it up fixed the problem (must get round to adding some lock wire when i remember!)
Dave

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Re: Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby Dowds » Tue 10.05.2016, 06:22

Many thanks for the advice. Much appreciated! I was very worried.
Sorry for this stupid question. Is this a repair a local garage could do or do I need a specialist?
I live South Oxfordshire (Wantage/ Didcot/ Abingdon). Could someone help and recommend a garage locally please?
Thanks for all your help. Really loving having the Elan. Makes me smile after any bad day
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Re: Unable to select 1st, 3rd or 5th gears

Postby Saltire » Tue 10.05.2016, 11:21

Dowds wrote:Many thanks for the advice. Much appreciated! I was very worried.
Sorry for this stupid question. Is this a repair a local garage could do or do I need a specialist?
I live South Oxfordshire (Wantage/ Didcot/ Abingdon). Could someone help and recommend a garage locally please?
Thanks for all your help. Really loving having the Elan. Makes me smile after any bad day


I bought a set of the BCN cables referred to earlier this year, though I confess I have still to fit them, as life has intervened. They come with VERY comprehensive instructions, and I would have no hesitation in tacking it myself - although I'm not a professional mechanic. BCN (British-Car-Nut) is also very active on the forum

Sadly, there are few really good Elan specialists around, and my Lotus dealer isn't really interested. I am training a local mechanic to work on mine - he used to bundle the BTCC Alfas for a living, so he knows what he's about, but he hadn't come across an Elan before mine. We're getting there! However, it's 39 miles from me to Williams GP at Grove, and that may be further than you want to go.

Good luck with the Elan; I've had mine about 12 months, and I love it. It's worth getting a Certificate of Provenance from Lotus, as that will tell you the whole background of the car, original colour, etc.
Jonathan

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