What happened??? (Shifter moved forward)

[808e30325i]

The selector shaft is mos def the culprit, I had the same thing happen to me at the track with my e30 m3. I thought the whole transmission shifted forward. Glad it was a simple fix. "You ARE the weakest link!"

[lambo]

Did you ever get this sorted out?

-Yes, that cracked shift rod would be enough to tweak shift position
-There is nothing wrong with the position of the shift carrier
-The longer shift rod will tweak your shift position forward; it would be best to find one that is the same length

My apologies, I should have updated this.

But, yes. I did get it sorted out and the culprit was just the tweaked selector rod. I replaced it with an OEM one (P/N 25111221657). Ideally I would have liked to change out everything and go with a DSSR, but that will come later.

[JinormusJ]

Did you ever get this sorted out?

-Yes, that cracked shift rod would be enough to tweak shift position
-There is nothing wrong with the position of the shift carrier
-The longer shift rod will tweak your shift position forward; it would be best to find one that is the same length

[lambo]

So I finally got some time to tear into it.

Does this look like it's in an acceptable location?



Here's my selector rod. Is that bend enough to really mess with the shift pattern?





Art gave me a couple selector rods and they both seem to be the wrong type :hitler:

One of them must be an early model one and the other was one used for a 24v swap with a g260 so it has the 10 degree bend and one of the ends is longer... Will the longer end hurt me at all?



I know I should be replacing everything... but I only have two weeks until I have access to a lift so I kinda want to wait until then...

[Kozworth]

shift carrier and selector rod both seem straight and not bent?

Id also pull the shifter itself out of the ball bushing and remove the small circlip, just to see if somehow it got bent. Or you can just flip the shifter 180 after disconnecting it from the selector rod, and see if 2nd and 4th now hit the console. If so I would say the shifter is bent.

[wazzu70]

That makes a lot more sense. I was trying to figure out how the heck that shifter would look if installed in that shape.

[Eric]

Wow, Ive never seen that failure before. Good to know for inspections.

Eric, did the shifter bend forward or backward? Pictures.

I don't remember. I stuck it in a vise and used my cheater bar (a cut section of an f16 20mm gun barrel) to bend it into the same position as the one I was replacing.

[wazzu70]

Wow, Ive never seen that failure before. Good to know for inspections.

Eric, did the shifter bend forward or backward? Pictures.

[TimbyMaTombo]

I had a shifter refresh kit from Blunt that I sold my friend when I gave him the selector rod. Includes everything you probably need to replace and then some. Was about $75 if I remember correctly. Just shoot him an email asking about a shifter refresh kit or something along those lines and he'll help you out!

[Eric]

Get a DSSR.

I had item #4 snap on me one time while I was on a road trip... pretty annoying.


Since you asked about other bushings... replace them all! Then replace your shift lever with an X5 3.0l one (25117543191). I had one in my E34 M5 and it was great.

[E30_Pare]

definitely looks like the selector is about to snap. Had this happen to me before. When the crack gets worse you'll find it difficult to get into any gear, then wont be able to shift at all.

[lambo]

It seems Mister Lorin is correct. Just got back from a little drive and you can definitely feel it bending. Time to order a DSSR, I guess. What other bushings are there to replace when doing a shifter? Since you guys are already spoon feeding me info ;D

[ak-]

I've done my fair share of hard 2nd-to-3rd shifts but other than that I'm not hard on it...I don't think.

Did anything else get damaged?

Das it mayne.

It's cool. I've snapped mine before.

[LJ851]

Assuming all my mounts and braces stayed in place, would the selector rod bending be the sole cause of my movement in shifter? Now that I think about it, I was getting tail happy in 2nd gear and would have shifted, probably decently hard, into 3rd and that must be when it all happened.

Yes.

[lambo]

It's the PO's fault.

Assuming all my mounts and braces stayed in place, would the selector rod bending be the sole cause of my movement in shifter? Now that I think about it, I was getting tail happy in 2nd gear and would have shifted, probably decently hard, into 3rd and that must be when it all happened.