Hello all, this morning I was a little too rough on my Vantage (2007) as I was racing my friends R8. I have either sheared a linkage pin or busted my shifter cable. I have always had a bit of a problem hitting third and I jammed it hard to stay ahead. "POP" the car was in neutral and I coasted to almost a stop where I lucked out and it popped into second. So now I am stuck in second gear (dead stick). The car is at my friends shop. Does anyone have any experience with this problem?

Thanks

 

I have never seen a shifter cable break before. Not to say it couldnt happen. The cables are a pain to do too. The shifter and cables come has one assembly. You need a special tool to adjust them correctly too.

 

I believe I read somewhere that it was a fairly common occurrence for one of the ball joints at the end of the cables to pop out from the shift lever mechanism. The fix is rather easy and sometimes people would use a zip tie or wire to keep it from happening again. Might be worth looking into.

 

UPDATE UPDATE >>>>>>>>>> After getting the car on a lift this morning and taking it apart, we have found the shifter cable did indeed break at the trans end. The weak link is the shifter cable design. The ends are just nylon and as such not too difficult to break under stress. The replacement cable runs 350 from the dealer.

It is only about two feet long. It does not require major labor to replace. Total time about two hours if you take your time.

Amfixer, the shifter and cables are seperate. Two dealers told me that they have never orderd one so it is safe to assume that they do not break often.

I was hell bent on beating that R8 so I was jamming the shifter hard. Third always seemed a little difficult to get and that's where it happened.

 

Glad to hear you got it sorted with an easy fix. Good for you out racing R8's!

 

The ends of the cable at the trans ends are a "Fail Safe"..if the syncro is not lined up and your forcing into gear, cable nylon section snaps to prevent serious syncro and or gear damage..aka cheaper fix for vehicle

The third gear could have been hard to engage because the cables were not aligned correctly, usually third hard to engage is horizontal axis cable..4th isn't punched on as hard so it isn't noticed as much and glides in for it's already lined up from 3rd being engaged.

2 hrs is not much time..but you can't take your time, unless you have small 3inch foremans..I have to lower the trans to get my arms in there

 

This happened to my 2007 twice. The dealer fixed it under warranty (car was new). They upgraded the cable with better ends.