Gear Selector Cables - That Ball Joint!
 

I have been trying to remove a set of cables complete with the gear lever and it's box. Apart from the frustration of having to lower all of the exhaust system to then be able to slide the heat shield rearwards, how on earth does one separate the cable from that ball joint? The various tools I have tried leave many marks on the socket and don't give much scope for recovering parts.

I use trim removal tools, pops the gear cables off a treat.

I'm not quite sure what you are planning to do Fred, however when I did this job, I used an old pushbike cone spanner to release the ball joints at the gearbox end, unclipped the outer ferrule clips and slid out the cables, then undid the four torx bolts securing the gearchange assembly to the floor.

You then remove the gearknob, and the gaiter trim panel, which allows you to release the four white tangs securing the assembly to the floor pan.

The whole caboose can now be removed from underneath the car.

Hope this helps

Brian :D

Thank you chaps, I have got to the stage of everything now disconnected, except the one remaining ball joint on the box. This is on a V6 2 litre, with nothing else removed from the car, therefore, it's pretty tight down there.

Well I finally managed to get those ball joints apart, and now I have got everything back together, but where am I? well I cannot now manage to get the ball joints together. I know that if I had the engine and gearbox out of the car I could do it, but as I haven't and the area down there is crazily tight, I cannot get anything to force the parts together. I gave up, and came home.

Try a bit of grease on the metal balls, and the cable ends should then just push on without too much trouble. Make sure the outer cable ends are seated properly in the support brackets on the gearbox - I clean these up and put a bit of grease on the brackets to help the outer cables slip into place.
Pete

Thanks Pete, as I was having so much trouble I got on with everything else and the only thing is to get the sockets to fit onto the ball itself. I had greased all and will have another go, probably tomorrow. The area is so tight it's difficult to get any tools in there to help.

Thanks.

Have you removed the battery box?

No, as that has always proved impossible in four cars I've tried it on, due to knackered torx bolts. It certainly would create more room, lots more room.

I removed the battery box years ago as I felt there was too much plastic under the bonnet . I use it as a storage box for spare parts :}

Big parts that don't fall out of the holes in the bottom :shrug:

Brian :D

Hurrah! one of the two finally clipped on today, one to go when I have time and in between showers.

Maybe I was lucky Fred, but the two on my car came off and went back on again no problem at all. :shrug:

The Freelander was a different kettle of fish though - struggled to remove the selector shaft, which needs to be done to get the gearbox off. The roll pin was a pain to get out and the sleeve was well and truly seized on.


In the end I had to knock up a puller.


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/lC8az7h.jpg?1[/IMG]

When it went back together a bit of anti-seize was applied to the sleeve and the roll pin was ditched in favour of a nut and bolt. :D





.

I did rig two strips of metal together with a bolt and will have to try again on the second one.

The ball looks the same as the ones on MGF gearchange cables. On those I have used an open end 13mm wrench to lever them apart, and slip joint pliers to squeeze them back together. There may not be enough room to do this on the ZT however. (Can't say for sure as I have never had one apart :shrug:)

yet....... :d ;)

Finally sorted it by putting a bolt through the one end of a ring spanner and linking to another, then used them to pinch the units, it worked and luckily, all gears working fine.