fuego gearshifts

R

Renault17

Active member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
May 11, 2001
Messages
314
Location
New Zealand
Hey guys,

just a point for any Fuego owners out there. I am installing a fuego box in my R17 and noticed that of the two gearshift levers, one of them slides in and out of a rubber bush. This bush was totally floggged out and no doubt affected the feel of the gearbox, let alone it's movement. I wwas told abot $35 NZ for a new rubber bush from France- 3wks. A suspension specialist gave me a suspension bush for FREE. I took in the original and he matched it to one on the shelf- it was a very common bush.

I realise this isn't exactly earth shattering- but anything that will improve a fuego box has got to be good!!

Cheers Ben
 
Would this be a very difficult repair with the gearbox in the car?

I'm likely to be finalazing purchase of a Fuego on the weekend. Not a bad drive except for spongy brakes (possibly needs bleeding), and porridge stiring gearshift.
 
Ken Bailey at Carrevelle has these bushes made from nylon for bugger all, and they make the gearshift precise and nicely notchy. Add a new clutch cable for a light pedal if needed, and they are a delight to use.

<small>[ 31 October 2003, 04:02 PM: Message edited by: Haakon ]</small>
 
Thank's Haakon,

When I pickup the Fuego, if I find that the bush is stuffed, I'll contact Carravelle.

Are they difficult to fit?
 
Nah, very easy push fit type deal. a bit of soap and hot water aids things if I remember correctly...
 
Update:

The Fuego is now mine!

I've ordered a new gear selector bush (along with several other unrelated bits and pieces).

Now that the car is in my hot little hands, I've had a chance to have a slightly more thorough look underneath, and in the process have had a closer look at the gear selector linkages.

The rubber bush at the back of the selector shaft is indead completely stuffed, but that will be replaced by the nylon one which is on order, and I can easily see that it will make a big difference to the gear shift feel.

But of rather more concern, I have also discovered that at the point where the selector shaft goes into the back of the gearbox, the shaft has quite a bit of play (at least 1mm side to side). I'm presuming that this is as a result of wear in a selector shaft bush in the gearbox casing. Wouldn't this amount of wear allow the gearbox oil to just flow straight out the back of the box where the selector shaft enters? Especially under accelleration when the G forces involved will cause oil to surge to the back of the box? Or is there some other unseen seal or something else which prevents this from happening?

:confused:

If my concerns about oil loss by this means are legitimate, is there anything that can be done about it, preferably without removeing the gearbox from the car and completely overhaulling it?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm still waiting on a Haynes manual.
 
Hi Ben

What are you using for gearbox mounts? The Fuego gearbox has one side mount and the R17 gearbox is mounted at the rear. The reason I ask is cause I'm going to fit a R18 gearbox to a R12 wagon and was wondering how you were going to attach the gearbox mount to the chassis. I have a few ideas but nothing concrete yet.

Regards Col.
 
Hello Col,


The R18 gearbox has side mounts whereas the R12 has the mount at the rear as you said. You would have to make some brackets to go from the R12 gearbox mounts (the rubber ones) to the side mounts of the 395 box. It's not really that difficult if you've got an angle grinder and a welder.

What are you going to do about driveshafts? The 395 (R18) gearbox is wider than the 352 box so you can't use the original driveshafts.
I'm told that you can transfer the diff from the 352 gearbox into the 395 gearbox to reduce the width and use the original driveshafts but haven't tried it (yet). The other option is to use shortened R12 shafts, if you can find them.


Ren
:cheers:
 
how much would it cost to get someone to shorten some drive shafts ?

there would be places around that would be able to do it
i know daniel engineering in wollongong would do it

you could nearly even do it yourself but would be best to get someone who does it all the time to do it and of course they would be true and balanced
 
Hi Guys,
umm, the gearbox is mounted on the sides - a mate of mine helped me out- he's an engineer. It now has two mounts on the side of the box that bolt to the chasis rails- that was the easy part- it was much harder to sort out a workable engine mount for the 1647cc motor...

The shortened driveshafts- Dave Cavanagh did that for me- and they have worked fine for me. I also added negative camber on the front though- which would help any possible binding of the driveshafts that some warned me about...

The 5spd box is really worthwhile on the 17, gives it so much more cruising 'legs' , it's just not funny!

Any other queries re: the conversion feel free to ask I'll answer them as best I can..
Ben
 
That happened to me too!! Mine was the metal ball joint on the selector shaft. It happened on Victoria st in Melbourne - took off from the lights and when I went to grab second, it let go and went all floppy leaving me in neutral!
The amazing thing is that I managed to keep up the momentum and coast across 2 lanes and into a convenient parking spot on the side. It had tall gutters and I still had enough speed to pop the left front wheel up onto the kerb.
It was right outside a florist shop and all those years of buying flowers for my girlfriend paid off (well, apart from all the other ways...), for I knew that Gerbras are sold with long bits of wire to support the stems. Ducked into the shop, got some wires, crawled underneath the car on the boot mat, wired up the linkage and off I went. Whole thing took 15 minutes :dance:
 
Good to know I'm not alone in this Haakon.

It was night, I had my good clothes on and everywhere was shut, so I didn't have much of a go at fixing it on the spot.

How did you fix yours permanently? ... or did you just leave it like that?

I'm about to ring Dave at French Connection to see if he's go some bits to reco the whole linkage mechanism properly.

Cheers,

Doug.
 
I actually left it wired up for about 3 weeks!! It worked really well, but in the end when I finally got off my butt and fixed it I just used a good linkage from a spare parts car I had. Dave should have a good linkage for you cheap. Very easy to fix and the sort of thing that only needs doing every 10 years or so ;)
 
Ah yes - the hoon factor. Lost count of the times idiots in wankermobiles wanted to race me in my Fuegos. Dont understand it, I didnt think they looked that fast. :rolleyes:
I suspect I have a good linkage in my collection of bits, yours for the price of freight - I will have a look at it later this week. I also have a gearbox with only 130K km on it that didnt leak at all. It got replaced due to its owner driving on a dud clutch for too long and it killed 2nd synchro. I was going to keep it for NG spares for my R25 box, but for the rear casing we may be able to strike a deal...

If the front metal ball joint is completly buggered, I reckon getting a second link and welding the rear joint that uses the nylon bush for a push on fit at the front as well would be the go. The R25 uses this setup.
 
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p.s. DONT GIVE UP ON THE FUEGO!! Its just one of Murpheys many laws that any second car will play up as soon as you get it. These are very minor dramas and easily fixed. You will learn to love it, trust me ;)
 
I endorse Haakon's remarks, teething troubles are just that... I am keeping at leats four Fuego's on the road and the gear linkages are something that I do on a
nice day - doesn't take long and most times I have a spare set of bushes purchased from Ken Bailey at Caravelle, and of course I keep all spares, & bits that I glean from Pick-a-part wreckers.

Usually you can swap parts around on the linkage discarding worn parts, and with the nylon bushes AND a new rear rubber pivot bush, the whole thing comes up pretty well. I have only found one badly worn part at the rear of the box and was lucky enough to find a better one in my spares.

The other thing is that you do find many Fuego's in the wreckers that have a lot of new or near new parts on them (Complete new exhaust systems) lights, mirrors, clutches, half shafts, water bottles, radiators and air con parts.

Many of those owners had paid dearly for regular service in speciality shops, but gave up on the car when either the TRX tyres wore out or something they thought would be expensive to fix happenned.

With a few spares, time, and energy and the ability to read a manual, there is not much that can't be fixed at a reasonable price on the Fuego and it is still a great driver's car..

Ken
 
Haakon said:
p.s. DONT GIVE UP ON THE FUEGO!!
Click to expand...

Dont worry Haakon, I don't give up that easily, at least not with cars.

Unintentially, it's become a bit of a tradition for me to buy cars with gear change problems. About two years ago I bought an automatic Magna who's gearbox seemingly had a mind of its own. After being told I needed the gearbox reconditioned, I stubbornly resisted and eventually traced the source of the fault to a faulty throttle position sensor. The quote from the local Mitsubishi dealer for this cheap little plastic rheostat was around $400 - sent shivers down my spine. Subsequently, a study of the Gregorys workshop manual taught me how test the condition of these sensors, so off I went to the wreckers with my multimeter in hand to search for a good one. $45 later and a couple of hours of fiddling around trying to fit the thing without removeing the carby, I had a Magna with a decent automatic. Trouble is, the engine went soon after, buts that's Astron 2.6's for you, or so I'm told. There was no way of getting the motor fixed without spending a lot of money so I let the car go for $200.

As a result, the rusting but reliable R16TS was bought back into service while I searched for a replacement for the Magna. Along came a tidy and original 504 GL, which I now own, but guess what? .... the automatic died a few months into my ownership. After being told a manual conversion would set me back around $2000 and the prospect of fitting another dodgy second hand auto sent me into despair, a friend reminded me of the good work done by a crowd in Hobart called Automotive Automatics. I can assure all Tassie Froggers that Automotive Automatics are wonderfull people, good old fashioned tradesmen who take pride in their work and don't charge much. My 504 left there with a fully reconditioned box, including torque converter fitted, with a warranty, for just $980!. Apart from an initial adjustment required to the kickdown cable it's behaved like a Swiss watch ever since.

Sorry for wandering off topic, but I'm just making the point about not giving up. Whenever I look at the Fuego it puts a smile on my dial, its just such a beautiful shape. And apart from the dodgy gearshift, the rest of the car is in good enough condition for me to want to persevere. And it's a blast to drive, especially around corners....
 
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