Williams 2 gearbox problem and battery light flickering....

[Willaims#66]

Hi

After some help with a just purchased Williams 2. I already have a Williams 1 but that is an on-going project that i am still gathering parts for so thought I would pick up a daily driver as my work commute has reduced to an affordable petrol consumption distance.

I have been told that the car has a Yanoo short shift fitted to it, I picked it up on Saturday and the girlfriend drove it back as I was also picking up the spares that cam with the car. Took it for a spin on Sunday and towards the end of the drive there was a bit of a 'clonk'. I stopped outside a shop and found that where 1st gear should be it was going into third instead, thought it was just me getting used to a different car....

This morning I went to take it to work to find that I cannot select reverse gear, instead where reverse should be it goes into first gear and I cannot get reverse at all.

Any ideas what has gone wrong or how serious it is? Don't want to drive the car in case the gearbox is on the verge of falling out (past experience with my Williams 1) so am unsure of what to do next....

Any help or suggestions much appreciated!

On a separate problem (same car, have I bought a problem car????) I was told that the handbrake light had just stopped working before I bought it. It does work occasionally but I have noticed that when the heater is on full the battery light is flickering, is this the alternator not working or is it just a wiring fault? If it helps the car had a turbo engine fitted previously and the last owner could never get it to run correctly so got an engine from Gaz2 via this website and fitted that instead, I am wondering (hoping?) it is just a wiring problem and doesn't mean that i need a new alternator!

[Vandella]

for the gear selection id get the front of the car up and get someone to try and select gears whilst under there.. from there depending on how mechanically minded you are you may be able to see/tell where the selection is going wrong..

Redoing all the bushes underneath in the gear linkage maybe also be a good start, as these make the selection feel very sloppy and could be part of the reason..

there's bits in the rubber boot which can be refreshed, also
The bush in the selector fork end..
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/RENAULT-Laguna-Megane-Scenic-Twingo-Modus-gear-linkage-selector-bush-repair-kit-/161335580022?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2590599576

get down to Renault to see what else you'll need or ill get a dialogys screen dump when im home.

[Willaims#66]

Thanks for the steer, unfortunately not too mechanically minded but willing to have a go! Will lift car up and see if it is anything obvious...

[16v_paddy]

I highly doubt it'll be the bushes at fault if it's got the Yanoo shifter on it as those will all be new as part of that kit. My money is on the clevis bar being knocked out of whack at some point, easy to adjust but a bit of a twat to get it right

http://i444.photobucket.com/albums/qq165/16v_paddy/2012/Dialogys%20pics/gearstick.jpg

Parts 11 & 12 are the ones to be looking at, where they join is a clamp. What you need to do is get underneath with someone to work the gearstick inside the car.

Tell them to go through the gears while you watch. You'll then be able to work out where the selector on the box goes for each gear.

Undo the clamp & seperate the 2 parts

Then put the box into reverse gear & loosely reattach the parts you disconnected.

Get your helper to then put the gearstick into the position it goes for reverse gear & hold it there. Don't forget to lift up the collar & push it all the way over to the left.

Once they've got it held in place, tighten up the clamp then go through all the gears to make sure they all go in.

It only takes the bit labelled 12 to be out of what by a tiny fraction to completely screw up the gear selection & the method above gets it correct 9 times out of 10 & should sort the problem :winkey:

[Willaims#66]

Cheers, will have to look at it at the weekend and update next week...

[Willaims#66]

OK, have now had a friend who knows what he is doing look at it, the spring no 13 in the above diagram is missing completely and when selecting reverse the ball joint that enters the gearbox just pops out, should there be a circlip or other fastner to hold it in?

[16v_paddy]

The spring is only really for springing the stick back to the middle when it's in neutral but I've never seen a clio with that spring, plus all the ones I've seen have number 27 in the pic.

There's supposed to be a little plastic casing that the ball joint goes into which is all held in with a circlip

[Willaims#66]

Paddy

Enormously grateful for your help and diagram! With the diagram my friend quickly worked out what was wrong and with the help of Nigel at Renault Parts Direct have ordered the part for less than £9, I had fears of terminal (expensive) gearbox problems! Will hopefully get my toy back working tomorrow!

Next issue to tackle is the flickering battery light and sporadically working handbrake light, guess the first thing to do is to test the charge from the alternator....

Thanks again!

[16v_paddy]

Good stuff 8-)

[Willaims#66]

Further update! After a few hours of loosing and finding various gears we (my friend) finally got all five gears and reverse working. Took it for a test drive, working amazingly. As it was now approaching dusk I put the lights on, pulled up back at home and switched the lights off on the switch. The lights didn't go off, turned the ignition off and the lights still didn't go off. Eventually located the headlight fuse and removed them so the headlights went off but the light on the dashboard stayed on, any suggestions how i solve the next gremlin???