t25 gearstick broken

[jake1953]

Well, I just took dekivery of my t25 panel van on sunday. During the test drive on saturday, the gear selection was a bit "woolly" but I assumed general linkage needing repair/setup.
when I decided to reverse out my driveway to turn the van around, the gearstick was going way over to the left when selecting reverse.
( 5 speed box) tried to select 1st gear and the gearstick came away in my hand!!
Under the gaiter, there is a spring and a collar with a grubscrew.The grubscrew tightens into a recess in the gearstick. this is obviously a weakspot as the gearstick has broken in 2 right at the recess for the grubscrew.
question. How difficult a job is it to change the gearstick?. Haynes manual says not too difficult.but suggests axle stands for access under the vehicle. can I gain access to remove lower bolt without axle stands?
cheers
Jake

[Therunner]

This happened to me. A local garage welded the gearstick and it's been fine ever since

However, gear selection continued to be difficult until eventually it was impossible. Turned out that an engine mount bolt had broken, so the gear linkage probably wasn't lining up! I think the gearstick broke due to months of forcing it into gear (it was my first T25, and a diesel with a 5 speed box, I just thought it was probably normal for it to be that way )

Melvin

[Mocki]

you dont even need to jack it up, so you dont axle stands, drop the spare wheen out, and undo the 4 nuts holding the gate box, undo the bolt through the linkage and its all done under there.

i welded mine up after the previuos owner had one of those silly extensions on it so he could get more leverage to force it into gear, instead of cleaning and adjusting the linkages..... i finished it off when i got fed up of it being in the dash everytime i changed gear and stuck by boot at the bottom of it and pulled it gently towards me......6 months later it snapped off on the M6

[Therunner]

6 months later it snapped off on the M6

Mine went in tesco's car park, much less stressful!

Melvin

[jake1953]

Great info. will try it at the weekend. It's good to know I'm not alone. the cheapest I've seen is £40 second hand

Mine snapped as I reversed out the driveway in the middle of a 3 point turn to reverse it back up the driveway. had to pick away in 4th and stay in it, drive round the block and back up the driveway the way I was facing in the first place.
Thanks again

[Mr Bean]

My selector fork broke due to the uncharacteristic poor design where a sharp stress raising corner was intruduced in design/manufacture. Result - gearbox rebuild. Think yourself lucky!
Cheers
Wolfie

[CovKid]

Should the box that surrounds the linkage beneath gear lever (ie underside of van) have a cover on it then? Mine doesn't....

[getunder]

On my first T25 I put up with a terrible reverse selection problem for months. Hit and miss or sometimes 50 attempts. Finally looked at the problem underneath while someone tried selecting reverse. It was simply a question of loosening the clip in the middle of the long gearchange rod and rotating it a smidgin. Perfect Is it possible a previous owner had the same problem and was forcing the gearstick over too hard ? On my current van after recently changing coolant pipes the pipes needed re-arranging to allow the reverse throw to operate fully.