Does my Acorn look big in this ?

Mick Rae

Active Member
Sloppy gear change (again, sorry). 2209 manual gearbox. The bushes that go wandering underneath in the selector mechanism are in place, so figured I'd have a look from top end. The spherical bush that the selector shaft ball sits in seems good, well, to me...how tight in the ball should it be?. The plastic Acorn is present. No bush in the hole the Acorn sits in, but that's correct for the plastic Acorn I think? I note some wear above the Acorn in the actual selector shaft that I don't think is normal (tried to photo that)? Acorn is very loose fit in its hole on the selector. Do you reckon my Acorn is worn too small and that's all I need to replace, or am I missing the obvious (as usual)?
 

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Extra info! I'd estimate the acorn, when in its hole, has a 1mm gap all round, can drop right through without touching the sides (obviously not when spherical bush holds it up!). The spherical bush, though in good condition, is quite soft, but I can't imagine the gear change is dropping so far that I'm changing gear on the steel part as opposed to Acorn, but that's the only explanation I can come up with for the gear stuck metal wear marks. I know I should just replace the Acorn, and will, but wondering if I should also do spherical bush now (full disclosure, I'm a bit skint at the moment so looking to replace as little as is necessary, but hey, what needs done gets done on my favourite car/object/pastime).
Thanks in advance everybody, can't tell you how handy you've all been to me already!)
Mick
 
It certainly doesn't seem normal to have wear there, but for life of me can't see how's it's happening. Only thing I can think is perhaps the spherical bush is relatively new, and the previous one had disintegrated, letting the gear change drop, as in the Acorn going down through the selector hole, and it being used like that a while before my ownership. Poking my finger into the hole the Acorn located into a jiggling around doesn't suggest abnormal up and down movement of the selector. But what makes that theory seem less plausible is that surely no one would have driven with that, I mean, hard to imagine gears would be changeable. It's a mystery to me, this wear.....it's in both sides of the gearstick though, so maybe?
 
Hold the fort (maybe). After stating at things some more, could the wear marks actually be normal, as a result of selecting reverse? Or have I just really conclusively demonstrated I am stupid by even suggesting such
 
I could try and dig out an old one of mine to see if I have a similar wear mark if that would help. See what other folk say, if not I can dig it out and look. I suspect the mighty knowledge of some folk on this forum will know.
 
Thanks, and yeah, that's the thing about this place, no matter the daft questions I have asked, there is always someone with a sensible answer!
Appreciate your help,
Mick
 
Success! Replacement acorn was significantly winder, and spherical bush significantly stiffer. Other than a short ponder whilst looking at the plate that goes under the alloy sherical bush bottom half, and wondering why it has a cut out. It was tempting me to put further up the stack between the alloy case halves, but that made no sense either. Quick look here plate cut out us redundant, so back together in order it was, which agrees with advice here. Just back from a test run...no more angry buzzing from gear stick, and a gear change that us positive "Snickety snick". Another small but satisfying job ticked off list.
 
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