i can 't select any gears it's all lose and won't work i have been told it may be the selector in the gearbox

dan, December 2005

i have a 2007 2.2 transit but lever jumps out of gear while reversing is there an easy fix for this
can it be like the cables or the selector box
all gears work well just jumps out i can hold it in no problem and reverse but what do you reckon people
before i rip it apart cheers

stew, August 2016

Hi I have a 04 transit it keeps getting stuck in first and reverse and the van will keep moving even tho I have my foot to the floor on the clutch it keeps moving and then halts to a shuddering stop..I just had brand new clutch and sleeve cylinder fitted ..been to 3 mechanics And everyone Orla em had different answer and an expensive solution is there anyone that can give me a real answer I've just paid £570 new clutch and sleeve cylinder pls thanks 👍

Mike, July 2015

I've got a transit 04 plate It front wheel drive And it's hard to get into first gear some time Because it grinds why is this

Kirk, May 2015

I have a 55 plate t280 transit. Gear box works fine. Noise
When going at about 30 mph. Jack van up and turned front wheels
And there's a clicking from both wheels I the gear box can you help please.

Kev, March 2014

just taken mine apart only takes 20 mins to take out.
strip down and re grease has helped but top bearings are shot. two hours tops to put back together.

mike, February 2014

Hi I got tranny 52 plate crunches in all back gears 2 4 reverse ??? Any ideas thanks mike

mike, January 2014

THIS WILL CURE MOST WITH STICKING IN ONLY TWO GEARS BUT IF NOT MAYBE DAMAGE INSIDE THE GEARBOX

Ford Transit MK6 only selects two gears probably just a tinny bit of grit down the side of the shaft of the linkage on the top of the gear box.
The reason you can only get forward and backward action on the gear stick is because there is a heavy counter weight on this linkage to assist smooth action between gears which forces the grit to cut into the shaft however the linkage on the other cable is flimsy and cannot force the up and down movement of the shaft . Pull shaft up as far as possible and clean around the shaft then big dollop of grease and gently tap the top of the shaft down then pull up several times, if its grit it will crush and free up also most rust flakes will do the same. Metal swarf may be harder to clear a so stripping the linkage may be necessary.
I gave mine a gentle tap with a 4 pound lump hammer on the top of the linkage, once the grease gets down there the grit will probably turn to dust/paste. The up and down action by hand should be just as smooth as forward back action when moving the counterweight. (very smooth)
This can all be done without disconnecting anything. THIS IS THE SAME ACTION WHICH CAUSED MANY ASSAULT RIFLES TO JAM JUST A SPEC OF GRIT GOES DOWN THE SIDE OF THE CARTRIDGE CASE AND THE EXPLOSION CAUSES THE GUN TO LOCK UP EXCEPT FOR WEAPONS LIKE AK47 WITH TAPERED CARTRIDGES

BILLYBOB9, July 2013

Selector bolt fallen into gear box and damaged the casing got the bolt out now but got broken teeth out too what will happen still drives the same just going gently at the moment do you think it will last

nathan1982, July 2013

Hi I got a 55 plate fwd transit find it hard to select 1 & 2 gear so I went to my local garage were they said its the blue cable not knowing much about vans I said go ahead now I got it back its still the same & it's hard to find reverse can some 1 please help

Jimmy, May 2013

I'd say 99% o you lot have just had your "hard to get reverse/1st gear" prob solved,& youre STILL asking q's.
ITS THE SELECTOR SHAFT ON TOP O BOX-2 SEALS THAT GO,OR THE BOLT

M, January 2013

i was on the motorway just about to go into fifth gear there was a little grunch then all of a sudden could only get third and fourth, nothing else, the same thing happened a few month ago and the AA greased it up and has been fine. now its happened again. is this likely to be the bearing or what? answers please

chris oaks, January 2013

just had the same problem with an 04 transit stuck in 5th gear. after removing both shift cables, wiring block, breather pipe & 6 retaining bolts I pulled out the selector box expecting to see the 10mm bolt either loose, sheared off or missing altogether, but to my surprise was still firmly in place. problem turned out to be the rubber seal at the top of the input shaft allowing water in & the shaft had a patina of rust on it. after freeing with wd40 I gave it a good dose of duck oil, worked it vigorously til the movement was free & easy, applied a generous blob of grease to the protruding part of the shaft & replaced. customer said the gearbox felt the best it had ever been & all it cost was a couple of hours labour. so dont be too disheartened, it might be better than you think

MOBILE MECHANIX, December 2012

hiya my transit swb 56 plate is stuck in 3rd and 4 th gear a cant slide it across into 1st or out people have been saying its the selector on the gearbox that you can fix it your self can i how ?

will, December 2012

I had trouble with my 52 plate swb fwd transit gearbox slipping out of 1st and sometimes 3rd for a while. It finally went crunch a few days ago and was stuck in 3rd gear. The dodgy bloke in the backstreet garage said the gearbox is fu***d and it will cost me 500 for a 2nd hand box to be fitted. Not entirely happy with his estimate i asked "a bloke in the pub" for his advice.
Going off what he advised i removed the 6 bolts holding the selector onto the gearbox, slid the selector out of the box and examined it. The problem was clear, a 10mm bolt from the centre shaft of the selector had worked its way loose and eventually fell out. I fished the bolt out of the gearbox with a strong button magnet on the end of a flexible cable. I tightened the bolt back into the selector this time with a spring washer and then bolted the selector back onto the box. Ive only owned the van for 2 years but the gearbox feels smoother now when driving than ever before so the bolt must of been working its way out of the shaft for quite some time. I was lucky as in some instances these bolts tend to get fired through the gearbox casing when they come out. So it cost me nothing to fix and the only parts used was an m8 spring washer. Just goes to show how many of these backstreet garages either A) Rip you off or B) Don't know what they are talking about.

I Hope this post helps someone and saves them a few quid

Paul

Paul, October 2012

Its cheaper to buy a second hand gearbox, if you pay for amechanic to diagnose the problem with could be a selector bearing, the labour will cost you £300 just to tell you this. I bought a second hand gearbox from just transits for 275 and had a new clutch for £594.00. Stressful but now works fine

graham farmer, January 2012

cant get 2nd when driving in my transit is it gearbox

ricky, January 2012

when driving goesinto 1st gear but wont change into 2nd.all other gears fine.and struggles to go into reverse.transit 2001.

ricky, January 2012

cant get 2nd and reverse on my transit 260 y reg van please help

ricky, January 2012

guys before u do anything check the adjustable cables first, look in haynes manual, 5 seconds under the van, its like brand new GEAR CHANGING . try it first, my 2001 swb transit gearbox second hand £1,500 haynes manul was 10 pound , the look on my face pricesless,
i couldn't select 2nd 4th or reverse gears , this is a common problem, an people get caught and have to pay out loads,
hope this helps !

KES, March 2011

hi i have a 280 transit on a 03 and when i go into 3rd gear it crunges but apart from that it goes in all the other gears at ease but the gear box is abit sloppy any idea what it can be

john, February 2011

Hi i have a 2001 260 fwd ford transit and the gears crunch in 2nd 4th and difficult to get reverse can anyone help.
Thanks

karl, January 2011

I had the same problem, i opened up the hood, removed the two gear cables, removed the the selector it was full of grit and stuff therefore jamming it. It took half a bottle of wd40 and some elbow grease you gotta work at it. Saved my a bill from the garage working 100%.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/1909/iphone005.jpg

christhejoiner.com, December 2010

Dear all, i have read through all your probs, its simple..... underneath your gear stick (under-side of vehicle) you will find a box with 4 clips on it, remove the clips & you can easily access the ajusters for the gears, their on cables so pulling one way or another will determine the result. THIS IS THE ANSWER TO ALL YOUR PROBS TRUST ME!

A.B.Joinery .co.uk, August 2010

Hi to all, I'm francesco and write from Italy. I have the same problem with the gear selector of my Transit FWD 2004. The gear selector is broken just in the bases. CAn't find the spare parts in Italy! Could someone suggest me where i could find this spare-part? Thanks!

Francesco, June 2010

you might find that it is the selector cables that conect the gear lever to the slectors thst hsve broken.
There is also a bolt head that shears of on the selectors. if so remove the slectors and replace the bolt and fish out the bolt head with an magnet.

andy m, June 2010

Hi I have a ford transit fwd y reg and 3rd gear is starting to get hard to put in to gear and the same with 1st gear. Any ideas?

Dan, June 2010

hi 2001 y plate 85 t260 2L fwd working spot on till yesterday 4th gear now chrunches but still goes in so im skipping 4th straight to 5th what will it be ?

joe, May 2010

After reading all the replyies here, it was very easy to fix my 03 transit. It was only selecting 3rd and 4th gears. After removing the selectors a bit tricky but ok and stripping down the selectors I found that the top needle bearing had gone, so for £11.00 for a new bearing and seal, and about 2 hours effort all up and running ok. Thank you.

Andy M, May 2010

hi i have a ford transit 260 swb i have a problem with the first gear it does go in and drive but most of the time it wont go in and makes a crunching sound. will be great if some one nows how i can fix it thanks

bashy, April 2010

cant get van into gear

philip brown, April 2010

Hi, i have a problem on my 2001 fwd transit, its not selecting 2nd or reverse, iv been told its the gearbox but after reading some of your questions and answers im a bit unsure and really dont want to lay out the high cost of a gearbox if it could be somthing else. would be great if any one could help me

justin, March 2010

hello i have a 2l 280 transit fwd i have just bought thy guy would only let me test drive in his yard so only tested 1st 2nd and reverse gear van looks and drives mint (or so i thought) so i bought the van drove off as soon as i tryed to get 3rd it crunched (only minor thow) went to 4th no probs then 5th no probs but when i then came down the box in to 4th no probs but from 4th to 3rd is near impossible to select its that bad i have to miss 3rd coming down ive been reading all day and carnt make up my mind on what to do as i dont think its the cables as its only 3rd gear thats the problem so it must either be the selector or bad news for me the box its self ? please any info would be greatly recieved as i dont fancy being bent over

rich, March 2010

hi,just had same problem, first check your gear cables these are the ones connected to the selecter, one blue and one grey, disconnect from selecter and see if they working, if not one may be broken inside.
if they work check selecter, six bolts, remove them and
lift out selecter to see if top bearing is still working,mybe jammed £2.10p from fords.
good luck

pat, March 2010

I have my gears stuck at 1 and 2 but can't get 3,4,5 and reverse,has anyone got a solution.

Tonnie, January 2010

Hello. I think my selector bolt has snapped but i cant be sure, ive removed rubber sleeve and i cant see anyway of removing the selector, i can see a a piece of metal which im guessing is the remains of the selector bolt. Does my theory sound correct and is an undamaged selector bolt easy to spot? thanks

Adrian, January 2010

I am currently working on a customers van that is stuck in third gear due to a bolt shearing off the selector shaft within the gearbox. The selector assembly is available from ford for around £80ish, and takes just under a couple of hours to change. You will need to find the head from the bolt within the gearbox before re-assembling, and i would also recomend changing the oil once its back together so that any metal fragments are removed.

Wible, December 2009

if its a semi auto with buttons on the steering wheel then the best and cheapest way to fit your problem is to convert it to a manual

roger, November 2009

hi ihave a problem a 03 automatic ford transit when i start the engine its difficult to go into drive or reverse iwhat could be the problem.n.b the selector is buttons on dashbord.

thank yu

nash, August 2009

ive just had a mobile mechanic do some work on my gear box/clutch 1996 diesel transit perfect van but i was having probs getting 1 st and on long drives it was a struggle getting any gears. i thought it was the clutch as i had this one fitted 100000 miles ago. so he changed this it worked fine for two days and then back to how it was if not worse !!!. at his suggestion we changed the gearbox then the main clutch arm not sure if thats what its called as im builder not a mechanic i was at this point wondering if he was lol. we then changed the cable and the ratchet on the pedal still no good in fact i cant get any gears at all ive not paid for any of this work for obvious reasons anyone got any ideas HELP !. thanx

chris robo, April 2009

Today i lost all gears except 1+2 . Having stumbled across this site i removed the 6 bolts holding the gear select housing on and stripped the housing to get to the obviously siezed bearing, i packed with grease and reassembled and am back on the road within an hour i do need to get a new bearing and seal, £10 from main dealer. i do have an engineering back ground but this is a job most people that can use a spanner and sockets could do. Good luck

Bruce, March 2009

the selector lid are a common fault and often go wrong. the bolt that holds the selector shaft in place, often snaps and falls into the gearbox, causing major damage. also the selector mechanism gets no oil feed, and the roller bearing thus ceases, causing loss of gear selection, grease the selector lid well and pack grease behing the reverse light switch

nathan, March 2009

had same problem only yesterday could only get 3rd and 4th gears. selector shaft had siezed in selector housing. to fix you need to remove housing only 6 small bolts lots of penetrating oil freed off easily now works perfectly. 2hour job in the dark

simon and mike reading, February 2009

my gears stopped working on my 54 plate fwd transit,i could only use gears 3 and 4.my mechanic said it was the selectors.he replaced these and now it works perfect,i can even select 1st gear easily now.it cost me 85 pounds all in.

DaveW, December 2008

i can get 1st 2nd gear but the gear stick wont move across to get any others can anyone tell me why please

dave, September 2008

if the gear stick is floppy then more than likely its the bolt holding the selector to the shaft this is a easy 50p job the bolt drops into the gear box you can get the bolt out by removing the selector housing and putting long magnet stick down their and if you are towing the van do it very slowly ( trust me dont tow it get it recovered by a recovery service ) or the bolt might get caught up in the gears and put hole through gearbox into bell housing and out the other side of housing you will lose oil you may be able to repair box by patch weald if it is a small hole otherwise the other option is to speak to your bank manager and he might be able to bend you over..............................................................

harvey, June 2008

exactly the same has happened to mine, i thought the worse but it was only the bolt holding gear shift leaver to gearbox had snapped

steve hislop, March 2008

have got one in at the moment with the same symptoms and it is the selector cables one of them has jumped off due to wear in the ball socket on the end of the cable. needs new cable. replace both. bl**dy plastic rubbish allways lets you down

g.kearvell, February 2008

if its not the gear linkage cables, its likely a problem in the gearbox (common fault) bad news if it is.

cousin benson, January 2008

Hello when you say cant select any gears do you mean it wont go into gear or goes in but does not drive?
I think it would be very unlikely to be the selector inside the gearbox as this is quite a strong part inside the transmission,ive never seen one go wrong,they brake selector cable,s,sometimes they pop off all together letting the gear lever float around so not selecting any gears.
rbtransmissions@aol.com
Richard

Richard, December 2005