Crunching into 3rd Gear

[mkc2bad]

Originally Posted by Boxtaboy

This is a stretch, but if they changed the polyrib belt and were also under the car to change the fuel filter, perhaps they accidentally dislodged the shift cables from their retaining brackets that are under the car. If that happens, your shifting will act funny.

Or, you may simply need to adjust you shift cables where it attaches to the shift knob itself. Perhaps it's out of alignment.

Thanks very much for the suggestion. I'll get the car up jacked up over the weekend and take a look I'm still not convinced that it's the actual box. When the car is stationary it crunches if you put it straight into 3rd..... however if you hold the clutch down for a few seconds and then engage 3rd it shifts perfectly into gear with no crunching. Weird?! Its the same when shifting up from 2nd-3rd - if you hold the clutch in and let the the revs drop right down, it's fine, unfortunatly upshifting from 4th - 3rd still crunches no matter what. I really hope I don't need a whole new box.

This is probably a total noob question, but how do I adjust the shift cables that attach to the gearstick? I obviously need to pull up the plastic housing around the gear lever, but how is the cable adjusted?

Thanks

M.