Well, title sort of says it all
Just recently I've had a problem occur all of a sudden, with 5th gear being difficult to select, and a feeling that the gear selector is sloppier than it used to be.
Anyway, did the usual leave-it-and-it'll-go-away cure, which unfortunately did not work.
Tonight I looked under the bonnet, and discovered that where the gear linkage from the gear selector goes through a final "universal-type-joint", there's a hollow steel pin that holds the two halves of the joint together, and this pin appears to have a distorted head at one end to stop it being removed from the joint, but the other end seems to have sheared off. I can actually remove the pin by hand (and presumabley the joint will fall apart), or by pressing it in, I can get it to locate in the hole in the other side of the joint, whereupon the gear selection is nice and positive.
So, I think I'm looking at obtaining a new pin, however, I can imagine this being a GM part, "45 quid to look at it mate" sort of job.
My question is, what's stopping me simply replacing this pin with a M6 bolt, and wire-lock the nut? Is there a special reason why GM use a hollow steel pin (it looks like its been rolled from 0.3mm steel plate).
Obviously this is a Must-Fix-Now sort of problem, so I'm looking for the easiest and safest solution, which doesn't involve GM dealerships.
Any advice?
Regards
Mike Dodd