Hyundai i800 - Hard to get out of 2nd, 4th and reverse gears. - 72psmith

Hi my problem is as follows:

In my i800 van I can shift into any gear ok however it seems to get stuck in 2nd, 4th and reverse and really needs some effort to get it out of these gears.

This problem shows whether Im driving the vehicle or stationary.

If I sit in the car with the engine off again it goes into 2nd, 4th and reverse ok but requires lots of effort to push it out.

1st, 3rd and 5th gears are smooth and easy into and out of.

Any ideas? I'm far from clued up with regards to car mechanics but it doesn't feel like gearbox problem, maybe linkages?

I do find that it's easier to drive if I carefully place it into the problem gears, the effort to get out of gear is then noticable but managable. If I just pull strainght down from 1st to 2nd or 3rd to 4th then it's much harder, as though the gear stick has gone too far.

Hyundai i800 - Hard to get out of 2nd, 4th and reverse gears. - gordonbennet

It almost sounds as if a linkage bolt is loose and sliding up the rod when you use it more firmly, the fact that if you operate it gently its ok makes me think this as not a massive problem, hopefully its external and not a selector in the box.

If everything external is tight and showing no wear i'd be inclined to lubricate any of the linkage you can see and get to, might be an idea to check the gearbox oil level too, maybe its due for oil change?

Hyundai i800 - Hard to get out of 2nd, 4th and reverse gears. - 72psmith

Hi,

A while back a pal at work managed to wriggle under the vehicle to take a look at the linkages. Without having the facilities to lift the van he could only watch from a distance as I cycled through all the gears. He couldn't see anything amiss. Funny thing was that after this the gear changes just about went back to normal, free and easy. I put it down to 'freeing something off' while we were fault finding as I carried out LOTS of gear changes at that time.

Unfortunately the problem came back. I have since wriggled under and given all the linkages a spray of chain wax, it didn't make any difference. Neither did trying to free it off again by carrying out lots of gear changes on the spot.

Yesterday I pulled off some of the dash so that I could see under the gearstick, hoping to see something obviously broken or worn. My untrained eye can't see anything wrong. One thing I did notice, if I can try to explain is this: When I watch the rod going down from the gear stick it slides in and out of a sleeve thing. When I place it in 2nd I can see it has pulled a certain distance out of this sleeve, I can take it out of gear ok when doing this. If I do it again and place it in 2nd but then pull the gear stick a little further I can see that this rod pulls out of the sleeve a little extra, maybe 6-7mm, it then takes quite a bit of effort to push the gear stick up and pop it out of gear. This is all done with the engine off.