My shifter has been having trouble with the left/right motion. I thought it was the cable but today I realized it is the linkage on the tranny end. There is a piston that moves up and down, and it is getting stuck like it is dry and/or corroded inside. It looks like this whole link assembly can be unbolted and replaced. Can anyone give advice on fixing it (clean/lube?) or tell me where I can get a replacement? I have searched gmpartsdirect and can't find it in the catalog. What is this thing called?
Any advise would be appreciated.
- Ken
'99 Z24, Manual
Here are some pictures of it.
In this picture you can see a pipe going into the housing. This is some kind of vent pipe that goes up to a bracket by the firewall and has an open end facing down. Mine has a crack in it though, and I wonder if water may have seeped into it and contaminated the shift "piston" assembly. It looks like the assembly can be removed. You can't see it in these pictures but further down there are bolts around the housing the pisting goes into (one bolt is behind the fuzzy red power wire).
Closeup picture (big)
This pic is a closeup of the piston. The up/down shifter cable turns it, and the left/right shifter cable moves it up and down. In my case it turns okay but will not go up and down smoothly (or at all if it is really cold). Does it need to be cleaned and lubed? Replaced? Neither of my repair books mention this part. I don't even know what to call it.
I'm clueless
'99 Z24, Manual
it's really easy to replace. it's just 4 bolts (12 or 13mm) and your cables of course and it slides right off. try removing it and soaking it with wd40 and working it around a little. should free it up. if not start looking around in junk yards. i don't know about where you are
but here in charlotte you have a better chance of finding jimmy hoffa watching t.v on your couch than finding a z in a junk yard.
but some of the grand ams (se version) had 2.4s with the isuzu tranny thats probably gonna be your best bet.
Thanks, I'll take it off and give it a bath. I have been starring at the thing wondering how it's lubricated. I thought it might have been lubed with tranny fluid or something inside, and didn't know if it would be bad to shove grease in there. Any idea what this part is called? I'd like to get the torque specs, as well as a part number in case it's shot. The scrap yards around here are only good for body parts.... none of them will let you pull parts yourself, and I wouldn't trust them to rip the chunk off themselves.
Thanks again, I haven't been able to get information on this anywhere else. Even the dealership was clueless when I called them, they wanted me to drive down monday so they can get a tech to look at it and find the part in the system.
'99 Z24, Manual
No need to get a new one, I just fixed it
Looks like some crap got sucked in there and was chaffing it (if you look close in those pictures you will see grooves carved by the dirt in there). I cleaned it up, replaced the seal with one I found in my stash, and patched the cut in the vent tube. I still have no idea what this part is called, but I think I did a good job restoring it.
Thanks again smoke
- Ken
'99 Z24, Manual
yeah dealerships never wanna help you on the phone. they always wanna have you bring it in so they can pop you for a couple hundred bucks to do somthing you could fix in about 5 min. and yes it is lubed by tranny fluid.
Was your shifter really slow at snapping back into the middle postion ? I have a thread in maintenance about it, and nobody seems to understand. I think i have the same problem as you, when i move the shifter left and right, it goes back to the middle, "neutral" position slowly, doesn't snap back like it used to
Mike Simms wrote:Was your shifter really slow at snapping back into the middle postion ? I have a thread in maintenance about it, and nobody seems to understand. I think i have the same problem as you, when i move the shifter left and right, it goes back to the middle, "neutral" position slowly, doesn't snap back like it used to
I have been reading your thread, and to me it sounds like the spring that pops the left/right action back to center might have popped or something. Pop off the plastic console piece over the stick and make sure the spring is still there, and that the retaining clip and stuff is still on the rod.
'99 Z24, Manual
BTW, all the comments in your thread about it being fluid or mounts is total
If it isn't the spring then maybe the shift cable, but that would be more of a "sticking" thing, like it would be hard to move it at all by hand. Same with the piston issue I talked about here, it was a "stuck" thing, and did not happen frequently. It really sounds like the spring. If you need help I can take some pictures while my center console is still off.
'99 Z24, Manual
I'm pretty sure i have a general idea of how things work. But to be honest, I have no clue whats going on with gear shifter/transmission. This isn't so much a problem, just an annoyance. Don't get me wrong, I would imagine if the spring was broken, it would just stay to the right or left, but, this does go back to neutral on its own, just takes a couple seconds. If you could take pictures of what your talking about, that would help, but only if it's not too much trouble.
