Gear Cables woes

[Rickshaw]

At local breakers yesterday was a diesel 75 with totally loose gear stick - wobbled any way you like. I was told it was a low mileage car. SO , are gear cables something known to fail often or on rare occasions ? Appreciate views on this.
My second point is one of real anger - here is why. This car was immaculate , like new outside , inside , under the bonnet etc. Staff mentioned this and that it was low mileage with an engine that ran very smoothly. Why was it there I asked. Because the garage told the owner that the gear cables had broken and they could no longer be obtained - so owner scrapped it. A quick look on Google shows this as nonsense :-
• DMGRS sell new ones
• On EBay these - and associated parts - are available
I was rather angry yesterday. Perhaps the garage had more interest in selling a new car than bothering to look after their customers interests properly. The garage is somewhere in Sussex I think.
Wanted to vent my anger. Grrrrr !

[DMGRS]

Early gear cables are indeed hard to find - but the little-known secret seems to be that you can fit the later type if you swap the selector mechanism (the bit under the knob itself) too.

Not a hard job, and we now recommend owners of early cars find a selector mechanism from a breaker, then complement with a set of our cables. :)

[macafee2]

At the gearbox end of the cables is a spring clip, these can snap so if there, take them as I have a feeling they are no longer available as a separate item.

macafee2

[Rickshaw]

Advice re contacting a breaker to acquire updated version of the selector unit BUT can anyone (DMGRS?) suggest a date or car serial number onwards frm when the updated version will be found. My cars are from 2002 and I would guess this makes them 'old' selector unit?
Observations most welcome

[Rickshaw]

Excellent thread in Nov 2020 by Blink , who had broken Gear cable and sought to replace . He purchased cables from EBay after taking advice from Daveluck who had fitted them in 2016 with success. Blink's thread does not seem to end with him reporting that he did manage to install and his car now working fine.
Does anyone know??
I tried to PM Blink but system says his PM inbox is full and cannot accept any more input!
His thread is , however , very informative.

[planenut]

To replace the cables is not straightforward but I'm no mechanic but succeeded. The information on this site proved invaluable, and I got a good set from eBay.

Garages will be pursuing profit which is more than cables cost.

In fact, the one I did the work on was sold because of the cable fault.

[Rickshaw]

Thanks for that and another confirmation re the EBay supply. Just like to know what year your car is ?
All the best.

[X10Rich]

I think the change occured at VIN 4D307061

[planenut]

Thanks for that and another confirmation re the EBay supply. Just like to know what year your car is ?
All the best.


54 plate was the one I did that job on.

[Rickshaw]

Thanks for the two responses above and another query to clear another fuzzy aspect :-
Is there a difference in the Gear selection units and Cables between a 2 litre and 1.8 litre model. Eg a Petrol or Diesel 2.0 and a diesel or petrol 1.8. ?
Where does a 2.5litre sit in all this - same units as a 2.0 ?

I can't see any reason for a difference - but one gets used to being surprised.

Hopefully , the info in this thread will be of benefit to others in the future.

After thought - anyone any idea when VIN 4D307061 was -ish?
Follow up - after examining an excellent earlier thread on this club site about VIN numbers interpretation I believe the '4D' in the VIN above refers to 2004 and D = manufactured in Longbridge. This impliesthat some time in 2004 the Gear Selection Mechanism was changed . So cars upto and including 2003 are the same 'old' mechanism and after some time in 2004 it was changed . Facelift time ?

[The Rovering Member]

I would say it was the owner at fault for taking the garages opinion at face value & not informing themself before running it in.
I can only assume that it was an elderly person with no t'internet access or perhaps they just weren't bothered which does seem unlikely if the car is as good as you say. :shrug:

[Rickshaw]

At the start of this thread I expressed my concern over a splendid 75 being scrapped at my local breakers because the gear selector cable had bust and the owners garage telling him replacement cables were not available. All my 75’s are 2002 and pe-date the MGR cable/Selector changes of 2004 – so I was concerned. I therefore acquired 3 complete Gear handle/Selector mechanism/full cable pair sets from beakers on EBay plus a completely new cable pair , also on EBay (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281634129215 ) , that Daveluck had fitted to his 2001 car in 2016. I was a little sceptical about this last item ie were only post 2004 cables only on offer? The 3 breakers cars were 2003 2l diesel Tourer, 2004 2l diesel saloon and a 2003 1.8 Tourer.
I decided to take measurements to try and find out how my purchases compared.

Cable Tubing
The cables fit into flexible , tough, tubing with, at either end , notches/flanges that fit into the Gear Selector mechanism housing the driver gear stick at one end and the gear box at the other. I measured from notch/flange to notch/flange.

In all cases – including the ‘new’ EBay one - the measures were the same – around :-
• Black( long) around 91cm
• Red (short) around 85cm

Cables
The cables themselves (slide through the tubes above ) have a metal rod and circular connector at each end

One cable ( red sleeve) is slightly shorter than the other( black sleeve).
I measured from the centre of one circular connector end to the other.

In all cases – including the ‘new’ EBay one the measures were the same – around :-
• Black( long) around 125 cm
• Red (short) around 114cm

So, as far as I can determine , this is what applies to the pe-MG 2004 changes – I do not have anything for post MG 2004 changes . DMGRS do , I believe , sell cables for the latter and , I understand, these can be fitted to earlier models if you can obtain a Gear handle/selector mechanism from a ‘post MGR change’ car to replace the ‘old’ car unit.

Interestingly, the 1.8 l car unit I obtained measured the same as the rest. I was half expecting this but would not have been surprised had there been a difference!

At the gear box end of both cables there are concertina rubber sleeves. These are clearly exposed to elements and one was highly perished. I have treated all to a lot of Silicone spray.

I drew the notes above together for my own records but they may be of some interest others in the75andztclub.