Hal H Posted July 3, 2008 Report Share Posted July 3, 2008 Factory stock '92 Z34 5 speed car: 133,000 miles on the tranny. 51,000 miles on the clutch. I've owned the car since new and have not abused the car. I have this symptom: now that weather is hot (85*+), driving at low speeds/stop and go traffic, the shift effort gets very hard, stiff to shift. Clutch is working properly. If I turn off the engine, it's still still to shift through the gears. If clutch was dragging, shutting off engine would alleviate that symptom. About 3 years ago, I had a custom fabricated "shift" cable (the larger one, with black ends) made when that stupid plastic bushing/retainer disintegrated - no longer made or available. This new cable may have 18,000 miles on it. When its cooler or let the car sit overnight, everything works fine. I'm thinking the heat underhood is making the cable bind internally (fingers crossed) never had this problem until a couple of days ago. I'm going to disconnect the cable tomorrow and see if that is the problem and try working the tranny levers by hand to make sure the 284 is shifting right. If the cable is the problem, I'm going to try and lube it with silicone and see if that solves the problem... Stay tuned for updates. UPDATE 7/04/08: Turned out to be the Shift (larger / black end) cable was binding. I lubricated it using silicone spray and worked it through the pattern for all positions - way smoother and easier. Also shot silicone lube into the (original) Select cable while I working there. I can work the tranny shift/select levers by hand without much effort, so the transmission is in good shape. These cables are about 1 to 1 1/2" below the rear exhaust manifold "Y" where the cross-over pipe and downpipe connect up, so heat is definitely a consideration. I had plenty extra of that split zip-tube stuff around the workbench, so I installed that on the entire length of the Shift cable for an extra measure of insulation (GM uses this on wire looms around the engine) and I'll see how that works. The Select cable (white plastic end) already has a covering that looks like rubber hose, probably to act as insulation and protect the cable sheathing from damage. That gave me the idea to try insulating the other cable as well. There isn't much that can be done to reposition these cables, due to where it goes into the lower firewall and bends around to bracket on the top of the Getrag - Just got back from a test drive, and all is well again!! Washed the Z to celebrate a simple fix and have it back on the road again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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