Shift lever woes

[142 guy]

I was out tooling around in my 142 today and noticed that the shift lever on my M41 (1971 with original long shifter) was getting quite floppy. A little closer investigation showed that the shift lever was floppy because the outer chrome lever had just about pulled off the short inner stub that comes out of the transmission. I guess the outer lever had been working up so gradually that I hadn't really noticed it.

The outer shift lever has two inner rubber bushings that fit over the stub lever coming out of the transmission. I replaced those 3 or 4 years ago because of a floppy lever and it tightened things right up. So, I pushed the outer lever down on to the stub and everything was nice and tight again. There is a circlip in the bottom of the outer shift lever ; but, it appears that its sole purpose is to keep the lower bushing in place. As far as I can tell there is nothing that is physically retaining the upper outer lever in place on the stub other than the friction of the bushings, or am I missing something? Have other owner's experienced this and come up with a solution other than glue?

 

[hiperfauto]

The lower bushing is prevented from sliding up the inner shift stub by the larger section of the shaft. You're supposed the stretch the lower bushing over that section, then slide the outer handle over the stub, insert the lower bushing into the end of the outer handle and install the clip. If you installed the lower bushing into the outer handle first and then forced it over that larger section of the shift stub you may have damaged the bushing by tearing some of the rubber out of the inner diameter. New lower bushings are still available, the upper one is not (though I think we have some NOS).

Bushing Gear shift stick rubber

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vp-autoparts.com

 

[142 guy]

Your description is pretty much how I initially installed it. Fit the rubber bushings to the inner shaft, push the outer shaft over the bushings and then install the circlip (that was fun even with some 90 deg circlip pliers). I would have thought that bulge on the inner lever which is a welded on collar on my transmission would have captured the lower bushing. I was in traffic when it really occurred to me what was happening so I just shoved the outer lever back down and it seemed pretty tight. I will have to investigate further to see whether the lower bushing has had some kind of accelerated wear that allowed it to slide over the bulge or what exactly has happened.

The lower bushing was new; but, new rubber parts for Volvos are not exactly what they used to be.

 

[142 guy]

Closer inspection showed that the lower rubber bushing had managed to work its way up over that retaining collar on the inner shift stub. I removed the lower bushing from the outer lever and shoved it into place below the inner shift stub. I also pulled out the upper bush and stuck it on the top of the inner stub and then applied lots of silicone grease to both bushes and pushed the outer lever back in place over the bushes. Lots of grunting to get that lower bush back into place in the bottom of the outer shift lever so that I could re install the circlip. Everything is nice and tight now.

I noticed that with everything installed correctly the shift lever is fairly far forward compared to what I have recently become used to. I expect that when doing the 1-2 and 3-4 shifts I have been pulling back quite a bit on the lever which may have gradually pulled that lower bushing up over the retaining collar.