Which cable has broken?

[davidh]

Driving into work today suddenly found myself stuck in 2nd gear. I assume that one of the cables has given up at the transmission end. I may have a spare cable but not sure which one. If it cannot be moved from second presumably that is the fore and aft cable?

[Dave M]

It sounds like it. Does the shifter lever move back and forth but it not come out of gear? Or does the level not move at all?

[davidh]

At the time this happened the shifter lever appeared frozen but when I tried it tonight it moved backwards and forwards with no sideways movement. Very limp! I think I can hear the whole cable inner and outer sliding in the transmission tunnel. The gearbox end appears normal with the cables still firmly attached. I am assuming that it is the plastic on the outer cable that has gone at the gear shift end. I have not managed to remove the socket screws holding down the gear leaver lower gaiter and gear lever mechanism
so that is not confirmed.

Drove home in a tropical storm pitch dark hoping not to have any uphill starts. Still stuck in second.

Do you know where the gear cable change write up went?

[davidh]

This weekend I opened up the the gearshift and discovered that in fact the fore-aft cable had broken completely just at the point that the flexible wire cable is joined to the solid end fittings. Fortunately when I bought the car 3 years ago it came with some spares and luckily one of the spares was a single gear cable.......... the correct one.

It was not fun changing it but the result is a gear change that is much smoother than before as the cable is not frayed.

[Elanlover]

Sounds like a job for ..........................(queue dramatic music)

ABMOTORSPORT Cable Man!

http://lotuselancentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2994