Which part of my transmission did I mess up?

I

igeak691

Member
When I bought my z4 the shifter would spin 360 degrees because a piece of plastic broke inside the shifter. So I added some electrical tape to increase friction, but in the process of putting the shifter back on, I had to use quite a bit of force downward on the shifter. Recently I read that when driving stick, you shouldn't keep your hands rested on the shifter because it causes excess wear. I am afraid that I accelerated that wear by pushing down really hard on the shifter in order to put it on. Can anyone give me some insight as to what may be messed up and need fixing? It's hard to put the car into 2nd gear now, and is easier to put into 2nd gear when double clutching but still doesn't feel as smooth as when I first bought the car. I thought it was all in my head at first, but my girlfriend said its hard to get into 2nd as well, and she is just starting to learn how to drive stick.
 
Not sure what is broken or come adrift, but here's the parts for the gear shift, hopefully it is just a simply fix http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=BT53&mospid=47799&btnr=25_0343&hg=25&fg=05

Hopefully someone will be able to offer some more advice
 
There was a post on here with the same issue. A guy had hit downwards to get the shifter on and broke a piece. Do a search and should appear.
 
I remember that, it happened when he was fitting a new ZHP but I couldn't find it when I searched :cry:
 
igeak691 said:
When I bought my z4 the shifter would spin 360 degrees because a piece of plastic broke inside the shifter. So I added some electrical tape to increase friction, but in the process of putting the shifter back on, I had to use quite a bit of force downward on the shifter. Recently I read that when driving stick, you shouldn't keep your hands rested on the shifter because it causes excess wear. I am afraid that I accelerated that wear by pushing down really hard on the shifter in order to put it on. Can anyone give me some insight as to what may be messed up and need fixing? It's hard to put the car into 2nd gear now, and is easier to put into 2nd gear when double clutching but still doesn't feel as smooth as when I first bought the car. I thought it was all in my head at first, but my girlfriend said its hard to get into 2nd as well, and she is just starting to learn how to drive stick.
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I think you're mixing up 2 different issues.

1) In banging the shifter you may well have damaged one of its mountings, ball joints or similar, thus making it stiffer to move. Can't recall the exact Z4 layout but all are similar with some sort of nylon ball joint at the pivot point.

2) Resting your hand on the shifter in manuals keeps pressure on the selector forks in the box and causes them to wear out the bushes fast. Takes fair mileage and a continual habit of doing it to be a problem. That needs a new box/ re-build

In your case most likely take the shifter out and put new nylon bearing in it.
 
I didn't hit the shifter down to get it in, rather I kept a strong downward force on it so that the shifter was slowly sliding into place. I'm scared I may have accelerated the progress of bending the shifter fork perhaps? Will look more into the linkages and see if there's anything I have messed up.
 
Hit it force it - no difference. You broke something in the shift mechanism not the selector forks.

Morale is to do jobs properly first time :)
 
Been reading a bunch and have a question.. is it true that German cars have a notchy 1-2nd shift? I was reading about fixing the linkages. 3-4 and so on is buttery smooth, but going from 1-2 I need to use some effort. Is this true for everyone else or do I really have a defect somewhere?
 
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