mushy trans on a spider

[John sweetz]

I pulled my 1978 spider out after sitting for a few months. It drove fine so after a dirve, I let it run in my driveway for a while. I went to pull it back in the garage and the shifter went anywhere it wanted! I could some gears, but it felt like the whole shifter was in a bowel of water. Did something vibrate off or loose. I had the trans done over about 2 years ago. I would appreciate any help or info

[conedriver]

Hi John,

Welcome to the BB. Your mushy condition is probably a loose retaining bolt where the shift lever attaches to the transmission. Use the "Search" function for loose gearshift bolt, and you can find a previous thread where the solution is discussed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John sweetz I pulled my 1978 spider out after sitting for a few months. It drove fine so after a dirve, I let it run in my driveway for a while. I went to pull it back in the garage and the shifter went anywhere it wanted! I could some gears, but it felt like the whole shifter was in a bowel of water. Did something vibrate off or loose. I had the trans done over about 2 years ago. I would appreciate any help or info

[John sweetz]

I appraciate your reply!! I am new to this site and will use it often

[Tifosi]

Another thing to check while in there looking at the retaining bolt is the condition of the rubber stuff in that end of the shifter. (there is a rubber bush between the shift post proper and the part that clamps the shifter to the trans tower)

Prolly the best way to check that is get the shifter out of the car and clamp the mounting part in a vice then lever on the shifter to see how much, if any, it moves.

Mine went all soft and gooey due to a combination of transmission heat and oil saturation, (PO was not what one would call a 'maintainence sensitive' person), and gave every impression that one was changing gears by shoving around a wet noodle.

A few fixes for it if that's what's occuring:

Replace the bushing if available

Replace the shift post assembly if not

Remove the shifter and either weld washers on either end of the bushing, or drill and tap for set screws in through the side so that the shifter, bushing and fixing section become all one solid piece. (vibration isn't really that bad with those fixes. besides, you shouldn't be driving with one hand resting on the shifter all the time anyway )