Fixing Sloppy Shifter

[NoahR]

Hi all,

Unfortunately, the gears all feel like neutral on my 1991 Elan Turbo SE, and as such, I was hoping to go about fixing this.

I understand that on a vehicle with a shifter linkage rather than a cable, I would head straight for the bushings and clean up the linkage itself. In this case, though, what's the classic fix? It shifts fine but just feels very sloppy.

Apologies if I've missed a thread somewhere! - I saw a lot on changing the cables etc, but I'm not sure if this would fix my issue.

Thanks in advance!

Noah

[Jamie N]

They came from the factory sloppy Noah, a rather poor shifter mechanism to say the least. One of these day I'm going to start looking into an upgrade, I've often looked at the mechanisms
on modern cars along in the big yard, there must be hundreds of potentially workable cable shifters, and even run of the mill ordinary mass produced vehicles have shifters that operate
fantastically well in comparison to the Elans. I'm absolutely certain there will be something modifiable from a modern vehicle. Definitely going to look into that.

There are ways of improving the OEM shifter though, sure someone will be along soon that has done it.

[NoahR]

Thanks for the reply, Jamie. If I can get a video up to show the shifter, I will - I don't want to believe that it's meant to be as bad as it is haha.

Hopefully someone comes along with some tips.

[Geordie]

Hi Jamie
You need to get that expertise of yours in gear ( pardon the pun) as I’m thinking of changing my cables ,so if you can come up with an alternative/mod that would be great ,
Ps your other mods I’ve purchased from you are still working a treat
Cheers
Geordie

[TorqueHorse]

Hey Geordie, as we wait for Jamie's magic touch, for a start you could look at your linkages and also the shifter itself. In addition to the cable connections at the gearbox, there is a plastic/nylon collar around the lever arm ball that can wear down. Also some bushings that hold the shifter assembly in place that could wear out. Thread where someone else replaced theirs viewtopic.php?f=80&t=28320&p=383353#p375397

But as everyone has stated, stock was sloppy [go to 2:38]

[NoahR]

Ah brilliant thanks for the info!

[RonR]

I reduced the slop slightly by introducing an ally shim around the nylon collar to take up the wear. I cut it out of a fizzy drinks can.

[DublinBlueElan]

I reduced the slop slightly by introducing an ally shim around the nylon collar to take up the wear. I cut it out of a fizzy drinks can.

That's also on my list of things to do but I was going to take out the nylon collar and see if I could fashion a new one that wasn't worn. Could you share a picture of what you did, sounds interesting.

[RonR]

Sorry, no photos of this one.

From memory the nylon collar comes in 2 pieces and there's a small gap between them, the shim moves the 2 pieces closer together and reduces the gap. No alteration was needed to the nylon in my case.

[DublinBlueElan]

Sorry, no photos of this one.

From memory the nylon collar comes in 2 pieces and there's a small gap between them, the shim moves the 2 pieces closer together and reduces the gap. No alteration was needed to the nylon in my case.

Smashing ideas, I'll give it a go too. Mine is dry as a bone so will pack it with grease too.

[NoahR]

Sorry, no photos of this one.

From memory the nylon collar comes in 2 pieces and there's a small gap between them, the shim moves the 2 pieces closer together and reduces the gap. No alteration was needed to the nylon in my case.

Is that the collar around the shifter accessible if you take the centre console apart?

[NoahR]

Just checking back in on this thread, went to try and put it into reverse today, and really, really struggled to find it (it just would stay in a forward gear). I did eventually get there, but it took a while. However, the next time I went to put it into reverse, I could't find it at all and had to push the car. - Also can't find 5th.

Given all the gears feel awfully sloppy, I assume it's the shifter linkage/cable side as opposed to an actual transmission issue. Does anyone have any suggested fixses? I'm can't figure out what the wear item is.

I did try putting it into fourth gear to align the gears. I know they are normally not great, and that there are a few items that I can replace off the shelf, but not sure if one will give an expected result.

Thanks.