I have a ford escort van 1.8d 1994. the gearshift is very loose and sloppy even when in neutral or in gear. how can i fix this? what is it i need and is it easy for a novice to do? please help! Argh!!!!!!!!
I assume this is a manual tranny?
In most there are centering springs that help you go from gear to gear and find neutral without a problem.
I've seen them broken or just weakened but considering they are buried inside the transmission housing, you might want to just live with it until the time for synchros or other work is needed.
Novice? Heck, most of us started as novices but some decent tools, an after-market service manual from Chilton or Haynes, knuckles that don't bleed easy, an anal attitude toward cleanliness relative to the innards of machinery, and a few choice words not meant for childrens' ears, will make you a practiced shade-tree mechanic.
(Maybe starting with 'magictouch' will help too ;-) )
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The manual transmission that Ford, Mazda, and Kia uses in their 4 cylinder NA (normally aspirated) engines has a poorly designed shifter linkage in that it uses plastic bushings in 2 critical areas. These plastic bushings fail over time and must be replaced. Unfortunately this is typically a dealer part, yanking them from a breaker/salvage yard is generally ill advised since you'll probably break the part as you try to remove it. There's a company called Corksport that makes a bronze replacement bushing assembly which should be a direct fit. It's pricier than the dealership part but you're likely to get rid of the vehicle before it wears out.
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