Alfa Spider 916 Gearbox/Gear lever Issue

[steve g]

Hi all, pulled into the driveway last night, put the car into neutral while the garage was opening and then couldnt engage any gears. I can actually move the gear lever around in a full circle, there's no engagement at all. Clutch working fine, just a floppy lever, feels like the lever isn't attached to anything. My guess is the lever has broken or detached where it joins the gearbox.

Has anyone come across this? Any advise on what I should check? It happened last night so not had a chance to crawl under the car but can anyone advise how I get to the linkage and is it a job that can be done by someone that only has a socket set!

Any help gratefully received, cheers, Steve

[Cool Jesus]

Hey Steve, sorry to hear. I've only just stumble across your post. What year model is the spider? Every chance that the linkage has popped off, hopefully not broken.

[steve g]

Hey cool jesus, cheers for the reply, it's a 2002 tspark

[Cool Jesus]

OK, sounds like you'd have the phase 2 version w/ plastic rocker cover, yes? My first guess is you've crack the gear stick housing, next guess would be a bushings/connectors issue... Not sure if the gear linkage was changed between the ph 1 and ph 2, but I had this issue with my 147 (it was cable driven gear change). Another possible reason is that the steering rack has come off! Yep that one happened to me, easy to tell turn the steering wheel lock to lock. With this, the gear controls are anchored on the rack, and if its loose (2x bolts missing) you get your loose stick and bumper style bowling steering. It was exciting driving it home like this 

In any case, see if you can see something and photos would be helpful.

Pull off the center console or open up the leather gaiter surrounding the stick and see if anything is obvious where the gear stick pivots. It will be a white/cream plastic housing. If you jump in Eper, type in your VIN, and you then have access to all your specific parts and numbers.

http://eper.fiatforum.com/eper/navi?COUNTRY=012&SBMK=R&DRIVE=D&MAKE=R&ALL_FIG=0&LANGUAGE=3&PREVIOUS_KEY=PARTDRAWDATA&NEW_HTTP=TRUE&ALL_LIST_PART=0&SB_CODE=-1&KEY=HOME&PRINT_MODE=0&EPER_CAT=SP&GUI_LANG=3&WINDOW_ID=1


Do yourself a favour and download this workshop manual. Not sure how you are on the tools, but its worth having.

http://www.squadra916.com/product-category/downloads/

[Cool Jesus]

Had a quick look on eper and it looks like they were still using the rod style of gear changing method. Can't see this being broken, So I'm now leaning towards a bushing has failed. If its a bushing I've found polyurethane bushings which can be used... Easy to replace, just a moderately difficult job due to their locations, requiring removal of other components for access. The method described in the workshop manual requires the hands of a hobbit 

http://www.superpro.com.au/find/superpro-bushing-kit-for-a-superpro-suspension-parts-and-poly-bushings-for-alfa-romeo-spider-spider-1995-2005-/productnr-SPF3124K/cid-999500880/vid-

When I had my issue and needed the spider back on the road, the parts place reamed me a new one, charging me $90 for one bushing, arseholes. You can get 2 of these for about $25.

[steve g]

Cheers for all your advise Cool Jesus, I'm going to have a good look at the weekend and see if I can get to the bottom of it, will let you know. steve g

[jim501]

So this happened to me today, driving along change from 2nd towards 3rd and end up with a box of nothings. So sitting in a car park a couple of streets from home. Will have to have a look at it tomorrow, steering seemed fine when pulling into the car park so hopefully just the bushing. I had a read through the gearbox section of the workshop manual but can't see where it refers to changing the bushing. Has anyone got the page number?

[jim501]

Ok, so it's confirmed that it's the plastic bushing at the end of the gear linkage. Anyone have a lead on where to get one? Or what the actual part number is? When I try to go on ePer I'm getting an error code 666 (can't be good  ) when I go to the transmission page (http://eper.fiatforum.com/eper/navi?COUNTRY=012&GRP_COD=212&SBMK=R&DRIVE=D&MAKE=R&COMM_MODEL=SPI&CAT_COD=U7&MOD_COD=163&ALL_FIG=0&LANGUAGE=3&NEW_HTTP=TRUE&PREVIOUS_KEY=GROUP&ALL_LIST_PART=0&SB_CODE=-1&KEY=SUBGROUP&PRINT_MODE=0&EPER_CAT=SP&WINDOW_ID=1&GUI_LANG=3). Mechanic have tried OEM and Europarts with no luck, they said they're no longer in production out of Italy even.

I saw this from above, but it says it's a suspension part. Does it really do the same thing?
http://www.superpro.com.au/find/superpro-bushing-kit-for-a-superpro-suspension-parts-and-poly-bushings-for-alfa-romeo-spider-spider-1995-2005-/productnr-SPF3124K/cid-999500880/vid-

[jim501]

Turns out Alfa was good enough to send the part number to the mechanic and I've got the part coming overnight from Italian Automotive so very pleased with that. Unfortunately it was one of the bushings that's attached to a rod so have to replace the whole part as opposed to just the $12 bushing on the end of the gear lever