Re: Sticking shift linkage

Posted by HH56 On 2013/6/2 13:32:24

It's possible some cleaner ran inside. Some kind of covering wouldn't hurt but don't know if necessary now you know to be aware of it.

The oil has helped many and should be done periodically. The inner rod moves up and down about 1/2 inch to engage the levers. If the 53 is anything internally like the 47 shown above in post 1, about the only thing the cleaner could have done to mess things up was run into the black rubber antirattle bushing just above the silver pin socket at the end of rod and cause that bushing to swell or seize.

IMO, a far better thing to do preventively along with oil in the hole is to look at the post 1 photos and apply oil between the levers and shaft in the areas pointed out by the black arrows. The bottom lever might have the benefit of a small amount of oil possibly running out the slot but the top lever has absolutely no lubrication other than what might run down from any applied or spilled around the hole. While they don't move up and down, the levers do have to rotate freely on the shaft so one can move while the other remains stationary. Don't have one to look at but suspect the overall arrangement on yours is very similar. I'd wonder if the cleaner had caused a problem in that area.

As mentioned, these levers were rusted and seized so tightly on my car the casting inside for the chrome operator lever had been broken trying to move the frozen levers.