buzzing gear stick

[Mick Rae]

Dear Experts,
1975 2200sc. First long journey of the year today, lovely weather. Got all the essentials done over winter - cooling, heating, exhausting, charging, starting, stopping, wiping, lighting, unrusting etc. So now its on to the 'luxury' items...............once we get to 55/60mph, the gear stick buzzes/rattles. If I rest my hand on it, the sound stops. The bushes visible from underneath on the selector rods (apologies if my terminology is incorrect) are in place and look fine. So, makes me think that maybe its the actual gear stick itself? Has anyone got any suggestions for what this is likely to be - and if so, is the remedy do-able from inside the car, or is it a gearbox out kind of thing (in which case it will wait until next winter as I am looking forward to a lot of touring about this spring and summer and want to be driving as opposed to taking to bits - plus that's quite a daunting thing for me given lack of experience of such major surgery and small, cramped working conditions). Only other pertinent information I can give is that gear selection is not hellish, but not brilliant either - a bit sloppy (but I got used to that and don't really notice) - and sometimes after reversing it needs me to reselect reverse to get it into first gear (I know, I know, not ideal, but I have more enthusiasm for driving than anything else, and so put up with these foibles - bits of me don't always work perfectly either, but I'm still going strong
As ever, any advice and wisdom out there is very much appreciated by me
All the best
Mick

 

[harveyp6]

Some ideas.
Buzzing gearstick

 

[arthuy]

Few folk I know used a big elastic band to hold the stick.

Obvioulsy it ddn't deal with the root cause but for a zero effort , zero cost (postal worker drop bands or used to) it isnt bad.

 

[Mick Rae]

cheers, will begin investigations, hopefully something as simple as bolts mentioned. Got to have hope.

 

[mikecoombs]

Make sure there is a decent amount of grease on everything first. It acts as a vibration damper.

 

[Mick Rae]

Have done some reading and thinking. It appears to me that the first thing i need to do is inspect the end of the gear stick and the plastic it sits in, and to do this all i have to do is remove the console and then ill have all the access required from inside the car - sound about right? Then, replace the bits that are worn (would i be right to think that it is likely the acorn shaped bit on the end of the stick that's a candidate of likeliness?), and then grease up and reassemble, before driving off into the silent evening................whenever that may be. Sorry if I am being thick, it just seems that this is awfully straightforward

 

[The Rovering Member]

The acorn is often missing from the bottom of the stick.