I had a problem the other night i went to put the car into reverse and the gearstick has become VERY sloppy and loose, so loose i cant engage 2nd gear without some serious effort. The only noises that arose are from just under the gear stick, so i ripped all the shrouding off, and the pivot ball at the bottom end of the gearstick is pretty much free floating, so i am guessing whatever holds that firm has let go as it was a very sudden appearance of the problem.

Took it into a mechanics today and hoisted it up, i've been told it'll be a mission to replace as its obstructed by the driveshaft and its shrouding, (the noises seems to be the gear linkage touching the shrouding) which is obstructed by the exhaust pipe. Does anyone know if this mount, needs to be put in from the top side(which would make me happy) or the bottom side(which means its gonna cost lots of time/money)?

I just pulled everything i could off from the topside from my donor car to see how it goes together, i'm able to see the mounting bracket, i'm not sure, but it looks like it may mount to the driveshaft shroud... I've pretty much convinced myself its not possible from topside, and i cant see any side access panels from inside the car, just wires and soundproofing (the wires in the wreck are neater than my daily driver).

So i'm thinking i'm gonna pull off what i need too in order to get to the plate off the wreck, then when i (or if i get anymore hours at work i might have to pay someone else too OMG!!) do the same on my car replace everything that is pulled off with better bits.

I had my linkage replaced last summer after suffering these same symptoms. £300 later....

cheers

James

Hi!
Ive had the same problem, tried welding the plate (the plate that holds the gearstick in place) from inside the car, it lasted for two days before the weld broke. Had to "hire" a couple of guys (costed me a bottle of Cognac) to help me screw the the driveshaft down and removing the exhaust pipes, then there is a tiny job of unhooking the damn thing (gearstick with companions) , takes about 2-3 hours to do this with threee guys. Then get a welder to weld the damn thing together, and TADA, 1-2 hours of mounting it on again, and then you have yourself a good gear-stick

The guys at the car-repair would use about 3 working hours.....would cost alot.....

so its not a cheap job then and likely one that will take the car off the road for several days yes?

is there anything on this car thats easy to repair/get at? lol

Hi Guys....

Great car, but how different is it to work on!

A late reply to the gearshift linkage prob.. I only aquired my 360 3 weeks ago & had the same problem with it breaking off.

You can weld it with an oxy-set by brazing the the plate that houses the the shift's balljoint back to the linkage arm that is attached to the cluch bellhousing. Use a manganese/braze rod. Wrap the shift's balljoint in multi layers of aluminium foil to protect the rubber around its base from the flame.

Make sure that there is a generous layer of braze used... let is flow all around the mating area then sweat it all over so its skin tenssion will allow it to flow under the plate also.. (hope i have made sense here)

DIY cost is approx USD10.00... make sure you use the correct flux, & have a water hose handy...just in case

Plz email me for more deatils with pics...

Cheers
Peter
p.poulos@usa.net

I have that same problem. What I have seen, it can be welded from top side also but it might require some cutting of the metal and it would be good to add some reinforcement there also because the standard plate which holds the ball joint in place isn't the best design. It comes off from the car body very easily. You can also just buy some self-screwing (damn that sounds funny.. ) metal bolts and bolt the whole plate on to the car body from top side with those.

http://students.oamk.fi/~kosipe00/kuvat/360_4.jpg

There's a pic of one top-side welding. Might not look so pretty but what I have heard it has lasted well.

I ended up paying some1 to put the replacement off the wreck in. What was broken was where the plate was welded to the brace that goes towards the clutch flywheel housing. I kept the broken pieces to be rewelded at a later date. Also swapped the driveshaft over... The replacement spun true, while the original had enough slop to make me feel sick that i drove with it in that condition, the shaft wasnt bent, but 2 bearings inside the torque tube had failed... scary. Car ran much smoother since its been replaced. Also where that weld broke, it is very inaccessible from the topside, aside from the whole dropping the gearbox out to get at it, its not too hard to access actually.

Ended up costing $300, but i easily earned that much in the time i saved than if i had tried to do it myself. The replacements took me 2 weeks worth of afternoons to get off the spare car, as opposed to 2 days to fix up mine, so i didnt mind.

When mine went, my garage man said it could be welded, but it wouldn't last too long. I'll admit I was a little skeptical, as these things can usually be reinforced, but I can't weld (although I can braze...I just don't have the tools) .

The waterpump went at the same time - in fact I was on my way to the garage to get the waterpump sorted when it happened. I'm more than capable of doing the waterpump myself, but I needed the car for a 1000 mile journey in 4 days, and I was booked up in the meantime, so there was no margin for error.

Expensive though....wish I had chance to do it myself! However these have been the only notable mechanical failures in the last 5 years, so I can't grumble too much!

cheers

James