Gearbox Problems

[Dwayne]

Can anyone please help me? I have a Seat Alhambra TDI 1998 model and I cant seem to get 3rd, 4th and 5th gear or reverse. I have had the centre console out and looked at the cables. It seems that the selector cable does not want to move to be able to select the other gears Im having problems with, its staying between gears 1 and 2. I have then looked at the gearbox end and cannot seem to move the selector cable connection on the gearbox which tells me there might be a problem with the box itself. Has this hapened to anyone else and that there is a simple solution to this or am i going to need a new box?
Please help.:confused:

[dave-dub]

Hi ,first thing to check ,take cables off the control tower and make sure you can move the cables freely,if this is ok it sounds like the control tower in the gearbox is starting to seize. Its a common problem ,as water gets down through the top selector arm seal ,causing the needle roller bearings to rust.
You can remove the control tower without taking the gearbox out. just remove the top gearbox mount. :beerchug:

[Dwayne]

Ok, after trying to put it off for a while, I finally got round to it and the cables move freely once taken off the control tower. So next question is does anyone know where i can get one of these control towers from?? I asked around where I live in Kent and no one wants to sell that as a part on its own:1zhelp:

[DHP]

I had exactly this problem and managed to fix it without having to replace any parts. It turned out to be the vertical shaft in the gear-change mechanism which was sticking. The gear-change mechanism is the turret assembly that sits on top of the gearbox and is operated by the cables from the gear lever. The vertical movement of the shaft corresponds to the side-to-side movement of the gear lever in neutral. I had to remove the turret (which you can do without removing the gearbox) get it on the bench and free up the shaft by tapping it up and down with a wooden mallet. Then once it was moving freely I cleaned it up and greased it and refitted the turret to the gearbox. So far its working fine.

[zollaf]

as above, but if you strip the selector mechanism, you can tap out the seized bearing and replace it, along with the oil seal. you can get the parts from a dealer or tps.