Sticky gear stick?

[geraintthomas]

My gear stick seems to have become very sticky in the lateral (left and right) movement. It was fine, but two days of not driving it and it's become sticky.

Basically, if I push the gear stick over to the right, it'll more or less stay there and won't self center itself. Same as if I push it to the left.

Now I haven't driven it enough to free it up, but I'm just wondering what would be wrong? Would it be as simple as re-greasing the mechanism directly beneath the gear stick, or would it be more of a gear linkage problem?

And on the same note - I had a Toyota Celica that I put brass gear linkages in, and it made the world of difference to the feel. Anything similar I can do with these?

Thanks!

[RandallNeighbour]

Definitely pull up the leather boot and shoot some lithium grease in the shift mechanism and see if that loosens it up.

If that doesn't work, you need to get under the car with the back end jacked up on stands and have a look at the shift cables to make sure they've not popped out of the clip that holds them in place. I have zip ties on both of my cables right at the tranny for this very problem.

As to the question on brass linkage, I've not seen that before so I can't comment on it. Maybe someone else can help you.

[steved0x]

Mine does the same thing until.it warms up, especially in cooler weather.

[geraintthomas]

Great stuff, thanks guys.

Thinking of giving it new transmission fluid, would probably help too.