Post by casualcollector on Nov 29, 2007 18:52:29 GMT -5
Hi Gang,
This has happened to me twice now. Thought I 'd pass along a cheap fix for those of you who still shift for yourselves.
My Dodge Neon is eight years old and at 125,000 miles now. Two weeks ago I got into the car to go to work and it wouldn't go into reverse! Well, the driveway has enough slope that I could roll back and got to work on time. Fortunately, it was Friday
Next day, I took out the battery and the tray that it sat on so I could examine the gearshift cables. Sho' nuff, the bushing in the selector cable had rotted away and wouldn't move the lever on the tranny far enough to reach the reverse gate. This had happened about a year ago to the shift cable. In that instance, no gears were disabled but there was a lot of slop in the shift lever.
Last time, I tried the auto parts store. No bushing. Dodge dealer wants to sell me the whole cable for $$$$$. I looked around the garage and checked the hardware stores and couldn't find anything suitable. On a whim I went to the hobby shop. A quick trip along the aisles turned on the lightbulb in my head. A whole display filled with reinforced plastic propellers for R.C. airplanes! I picked one that measured a bit over the O.D. of the original bushing, paid the man $1.75 US and headed back to the garage.
I drilled out the center hole to fit the lever on the transmission. Next, I cut off the blades with a razor saw and filed them as close to round as I could. I dug through the bolts and nuts so I could make an arbor. The diameter of the bolt was a bit small, but a few wraps of electrical tape made it a snug fit. I tightened the nut down on it then chucked it into the drill press. With a coarse file, I shaved the outside diameter of the prop hub down to fit the end of the cable. I installed it on the car and once again I had five speeds forward and one reverse. All for $1.75 and an hour labor.
This trick will probably work on other cars. While shift cables probably have many different sized bushings (bushes for our UK readers), model airplane propellers come in even greater variety.
Hope I can save you some money!
Bill
This has happened to me twice now. Thought I 'd pass along a cheap fix for those of you who still shift for yourselves.
My Dodge Neon is eight years old and at 125,000 miles now. Two weeks ago I got into the car to go to work and it wouldn't go into reverse! Well, the driveway has enough slope that I could roll back and got to work on time. Fortunately, it was Friday
Next day, I took out the battery and the tray that it sat on so I could examine the gearshift cables. Sho' nuff, the bushing in the selector cable had rotted away and wouldn't move the lever on the tranny far enough to reach the reverse gate. This had happened about a year ago to the shift cable. In that instance, no gears were disabled but there was a lot of slop in the shift lever.
Last time, I tried the auto parts store. No bushing. Dodge dealer wants to sell me the whole cable for $$$$$. I looked around the garage and checked the hardware stores and couldn't find anything suitable. On a whim I went to the hobby shop. A quick trip along the aisles turned on the lightbulb in my head. A whole display filled with reinforced plastic propellers for R.C. airplanes! I picked one that measured a bit over the O.D. of the original bushing, paid the man $1.75 US and headed back to the garage.
I drilled out the center hole to fit the lever on the transmission. Next, I cut off the blades with a razor saw and filed them as close to round as I could. I dug through the bolts and nuts so I could make an arbor. The diameter of the bolt was a bit small, but a few wraps of electrical tape made it a snug fit. I tightened the nut down on it then chucked it into the drill press. With a coarse file, I shaved the outside diameter of the prop hub down to fit the end of the cable. I installed it on the car and once again I had five speeds forward and one reverse. All for $1.75 and an hour labor.
This trick will probably work on other cars. While shift cables probably have many different sized bushings (bushes for our UK readers), model airplane propellers come in even greater variety.
Hope I can save you some money!
Bill
ol---Cobbler--roy