Gear linkage

Hi

i have an Alfa 166 and have been having trouble changing gears. The reason is that sideways movement of the gearstick is very stiff but I have isolated the problem. The 2 cables from the gearstick end up attached to linkages on top of the gearbox one of which controls the back and forward movement, the other lateral movement ie. when you change from 2nd-3rd, 4th-5th through the gates. Where this attaches, there is a shaft through the housing which has a plastic "top hat" bush either end. My shaft had become a bit siezed, cleaned and now fine, but the 2 bushes are knackered. I have been told bt Alfa dealers I cannot buy just the 2 bushes but have to buy the whole mechanical unit (£104+vat). Can anyone help. The size of the "top hat" bushes are:- length=11mm, outside dia 17mm, inside dia= 15mm. flange dia=24mm, flange thickness=1mm.

Hope someone can help as I am at my wits end having scoured the web all day to no avail.

Could you get a local machine shop to make you up some in nylon?

Sounds like the way to go if they are so simple as you describe.

Richard

Thanks but dont have machine shop locally and wouldn't know what type would do that sort of work. Have looked at all sorts of sites that sell and make bushes to order which is great if you need them in their thousands.

What I don't understand is that this part is assembled with nuts and bolts and you can easily disassemble it but cannot buy the washers and bushes separately.

typical alfa

Here's a couple of links to the IGUS site suitable bearings seem to be available in small quantity.

igus® - iglidur® H4

igus® - iglidur® G

Must be worth a try methinks :xmas:

Are you sure it's nylon? does the shaft slide in the bushes? If so I'd expect that sort of bushing to be something frictionless like PTFE, either way if you don't want to buy the whole assembly then look for a sub contract engineering company who can knock things up in small numbers .

I know a company who have capacity and might do it on the cheap if you can supply an accurate drawing, one thing with this is you don't really know the tolerances or the the desired fit so could be a useless exercise getting them made up for you.

Hope this is helpful in some way.

Hi

I'd like to thank you all for the response, its very refreshing to get honest help. I realise that Alfa are good at trying to make you buy complete assemblies when only minor part defective ie. thermostat and having to buy the whole housing even though when you take the old one off you can remove the thermostat from the housing.

However the link to Igus was great, they have the exact size bushes, self lubricating, small quantities are no problem, they sell to public and when I spoke to them today they were extremely helpfull. Also they make these sorts of things for the motor industry and likely supply motor manufacturers.

The good news is that one unit costs £3 and the whole thing (2 bushes) and postage only comes to £12 and has therefore saved me around £105.

I have now saved their info as if I get any other probs that require bushes I will be visiting them again.

Thank you all again

Ian.

great stuff Ian - we should start compiling an alternative part list for the 166 as we seem to be doing quite well at discovering alternative sources for these sort of parts

Which flavour of IGUS Bush did you go for?

Please let us know how it works out in the end. We would really like to know about solutions like this.

thanks,

Richard

Hi all

The bearings I bought were the Iglidur 'G' bearing which is a self lubricating general purpose type and are now fitted to my gear linkage. I can also report that they fit, and perform perfectly and my gear change is now as smooth as a baby's botty. Thanks to everyone again for the response and help.

Ian.

I tried to see if I could find the correct size on that site and couldn't

What was the part number you found in the end?
thanks,

Does anyone know the dimensions for these bushes? - I'd like to replace a duff pair with Igus bearings. Igus stuff is good kit...

Ta - Crayfish.

My 147's gearbox is really stiff, how do I go about checking it out myself? I'm not mechanically minded but I'm sure I can get the other half to have a look if its simple enough LOL!

Hi all

With reference to my gear linkage problem, having bought the teflon/nylon/plastic bearings from Igus, I am sorry I cannot give anyone the part number or sizes as I cannot remember the measurements. However what I did at the time was take a rough size using a tape measure and then ordered 2/3 pairs of slightly different sizes to ensure at least some fitted properly and it did work.
Further to that, my gear linkage in the lateral movement started to stiffen up again recently and I discovered that from under the gear knob and running through the bulkhead to the gear change mechanism on gearbox are a pair of cables one of which on mine had become worn out or rusted.
I decided to replace these (can only be bought as a pair from main dealer @ £120) and they come as a unit with the bulkhead rubber gasket all fitted and I have to say it was a bit of a pig of a job as you have to remove all the trim around the gear knob and tunnel to the bulkhead but they were a perfect fit and worth the 5/6 man hours it took to do it, and of course it saved silly dealers charges. My gear change is now perfect and very smooth so if you have a similar stiff gear change it is likely to be either the bushes or the cables or as in my case both.
It has been worth all the effort of clambering in the footwell for hours although it didnt feel like it at the time but the positive point is that you get to know a bit more of how your car is built.

Regards to you all
Ian