Gearstick spring broken

Kris

DW Member ++
Joined
Jul 19, 2004
Messages
1,719
Reaction score
6
I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to get at the gearstick return spring on a Ford Focus? Gearstick no longer returns to a central position when changing gear making 3rd and 4th a bit of a challenge sometimes!

Would I find it underneath the car or can I get to it from inside the car?
 
Pretty sure they are located under the flexicover at the base of the gear lever shaft, not sure how you lift the shroud to have a look though, think the centre console has to come out first.
 
on the front for the gearbox there is a big black cover , unclip the cover and u will see two cables both with a red clip at the end . with the car in neutral press the two red clips in and the cables with auto adjust m8 . only takes ten minutes . it your lucky the cables have stretched a bit,
or u can do it like this . but l have never had to do it this was ?
1. If make sure the cables are locked in the bracket. the knurls open by twisting them.
2. looking at the shift linkage, you will see two levers with cables on them. the one to the left is a small lever that controls the left and right. the larger one with the huge counterweight on it controls the up and down.
3. put the shifter in 4th gear and go to the left-right lever. Push the orange button on the cable in and move the lever so that it is pointing straight down and there is no slack in the cable. release the button.
4. have an assistant hold the shifter all the way left. Now go to the cables again and push the orange button on the up-down cable. the counterweight causes this to be a little off center so manually push this linkage to be pointing straight down. when it is set, release the orange button.
I have heard many people have trouble adjusting the cables, using this method I have gotten it dead on the first time.
 
Last edited:
Why bother?, i remove my return springs on all my cars as i like the gearstick to stay where i put it and not where it wants to go.....
Its pretty simple to do as pointed out though.
 
on the front for the gearbox there is a big black cover , unclip the cover and u will see two cables both with a red clip at the end . with the car in neutral press the two red clips in and the cables with auto adjust m8 . only takes ten minutes . it your lucky the cables have stretched a bit,
or u can do it like this . but l have never had to do it this was ?
1. If make sure the cables are locked in the bracket. the knurls open by twisting them.
2. looking at the shift linkage, you will see two levers with cables on them. the one to the left is a small lever that controls the left and right. the larger one with the huge counterweight on it controls the up and down.
3. put the shifter in 4th gear and go to the left-right lever. Push the orange button on the cable in and move the lever so that it is pointing straight down and there is no slack in the cable. release the button.
4. have an assistant hold the shifter all the way left. Now go to the cables again and push the orange button on the up-down cable. the counterweight causes this to be a little off center so manually push this linkage to be pointing straight down. when it is set, release the orange button.
I have heard many people have trouble adjusting the cables, using this method I have gotten it dead on the first time.

Thanks mate.
 
I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to get at the gearstick return spring on a Ford Focus? Gearstick no longer returns to a central position when changing gear making 3rd and 4th a bit of a challenge sometimes!

Would I find it underneath the car or can I get to it from inside the car?

brewby is correct It's actually visible under the leather gaitor I know coz mine's broke and all There's one either side to push it back to centre On mine the right one still pushes back from 5th gear to centre But the left from 1st + 2nd is knackered Been driving with it like that for 3 years ( you get used to it ) Even my haynes book of destroy it yourself doesn't explain how to fettle it would like to know how much it costs to fix though
 
Back
Top