SAAB 900 Linkage part two. Help!

Its a manual transmission. Shifting had become difficult, so I popped the hood to investigate. The nylon/plastic part of the linkage has developed a Crack. Time to swap out the one I found a few months back. No biggie, right?

Oh yeah. It's a special car.....

Before touching anything else, I put the car in 4th gear and placed the L pins in the appropriate places. I swapped out the linkage. I think everything is in its proper place. Maybe.

The pin in the transmission will not come back out. The pin was straight, with no ridges in it when I placed it in place. It slid in easily.

The gear shift does slide back and forth with and without the clutch pedal depressed. It goes from 4th th just before the cross bar in the shifting pattern. This does only happen when the pin is removed from the gear shift placement.

Thoughts? Questions? It'll be 6 or 7 before I can post the pics I took.

Help!

Have a look at this forum;
https://www.saabcentral.com

Thanks, John, but that thread is on a different subject. Related item to be checked, for sure. My shift stick is now moving smoothly from third to fourth. Just for fun, I had removed the new linkage and reinstalled it.

The pin in the transmission that is supposed to keep it locked in fourth gear is still stuck in place.

Here is my cracked linkage, still on the car.


Here, is a close-up of the crack. Eeek!


Here is the new-to-me linkage installed, showing the gear rod is firmly attached with the clamping bolt. The rubber accordion boot has been pushed toward the firewall.


Here is a view of the linkage showing the placement of the transmission side in the fourth gear. It was locked in place in fourth gear at the gear shift and transmission with pins before removal. These pins moved smoothly into place, and no jiggling or force was applied. Removing the pin at the shifter and moving the gear shift to the third is how removal is completed. At installation, the shifter is moved back to the fourth gear to insert the gear rod into the linkage. Held in place by that clamping bolt mentioned above, not pictured here.


And a pic of the locking pins.


And their placement. The top pic is transmission, the bottom is of the gear shifter.


Now, also after installation, when I have moved it into third gear. Please note that there is still a pin in the transmission. The one that won't come out... The one that is supposed to be keeping the transmission from shifting...


It looks like it is shifting. The gearshift moves throughout the first four gears in the shifting pattern. I didn't try the fifth or reverse.

We have not tried to move the car, because that pin is stuck in place.

Further thoughts? Laughter?

Hmm... Maybe, assuming the gears inside the case are still lined up, is there a way to use a hair dryer bottle torch to heat up the pin and ease it out?

Any chance that the car has rolled a bit forward or backwards after putting the index pin in? If so that might be binding the pin in place.

I like Robert's line of thinking.  Jeep CJ's were notorious for this.  To lock in the 4 wheel drive one had to rock the vehicle back and forth while putting pressure on the shifter to the transfer case.  

While someone pulls on the pin can the car be rocked back and forth safely without harming the person pulling on the pin?  If the shift linkage was worn when the pin was installed the play/slop in the overall length of the linkage would mean the pin is not centered where designed.  It may be off by a millimeter or two and needs the linkage shaken to get the pin out of the transmission by rolling back and forth.

Otherwise I would suggest the new linkage is slightly longer/shorter than the old and is putting pressure on the pin.  The rotational alignment of the linkage at a 90 degree bend could also effect length causing the rubbing of the pin.

Maybe it rolled? How smart would it be to rock it while up on ramps?

Realizing now that the title says "Part 2", I found the post from 8 months ago about the linkage breaking.  I have some questions...

At the end of that thread you state the car was running.  When you drove it, did it seem to be in the proper gear and drive normally (power acceleration, etc...)?  From what I read it sounds like you had the linkage completely off at some point and it was repaired by a neighbor rigging it up with parts at hand.  

Was the transmission and shifter pinned while this was going on?  If not are you sure the gear linkage was in the correct position when the linkage was repair the first time?  I have this nagging doubt that when you dropped the pin into the locking hole it may have not been properly lined up with a known 4th gear position.  Now the pin may have dropped BEFORE or AFTER  the designed detent.  If this is the case, then brute force may be the only way to pull the pin if it in fact not in the right factory alignment.

I would not rock the car on ramps personally.  It must roll a few inches forward or backward to rotate the transmission.  I am not sure how much margin you have in all 4 directions on the ramp.  Also remember that when the pin comes out, the transmission might not be or stay in gear.  It may roll off the ramps like it was in neutral.  Block the tires so you don't have a roll away.  If you do rock it on the ramp make sure nothing, including toes, are anywhere near the plane of the vehicle.  It takes longer to take down off the ramps than it does to transport to a hospital.    

Thanks for weighing in, Jack.

No. In part 1 the linkage was always still in place on the car. A clip and bushing came off, the linkage separated, the metal portion with the bolt that screws into the transmission rod stayed in place, the remainder of the (nylon? plastic?) part of the linkage then was sliding on that shaft as the gear shift was moved. The bolt rejoined the linkage to the potion with the bolt on the transmission shaft.

So, no pinning occurred. The car had been shifting wonderfully, until the crack formed this week. I think this only happened when the nut loosened enough to create too much play... I

EDIT: Also, the linkage did not side off the transmission rod. So the transmission and gear shift remained in sync.

Working from my phone. Pardon the brevity.
If the pin is still stuck try lubricating the pin. A little motor oil in a drinking straw dipped with a finger over the top and then released at the top of the pin shaft left to run down the pin might reduce the force needed to extract the pin.  Just a thought as I ponder what it could stuck against st.

Reading through the thread again. I would avoid a torch to heat the pin. If anything the heat would cause expansion of the pin before the metal is is connected. Also a torch could light oil residue on fire. Very bad for belts, hoses, and electrical harnesses.  Last resort maybe.

Weelll...

I tried to pull it out with vice grips. No big surprise when I was too weak. Next day some he men were available to wrench at it. The pin is Still stuck in place... the guys did try using a long bar for leverage, to lift it out...

Further ideas?

Can you lift one wheel and turn it so the gears move?

I may have been unclear. With the pin  still in the transmission side, the gears move through a positions by moving the gear shifter. So, I don't know what your suggestion would do? Further information please?

Our current plan is to try and pry the pin a bit further out, and bend the portion outside of the transmission a bit. We hope to permanently lift the pin enough that it cannot slip back inside to interfere with the gears. But leave it still there. Because it won't come out for us.

Ummmm...  Update.

New information

We drove it around the block. Now it only does 2, 4, and reverse gears. Weird.

Thoughts?

Were you able to remove the pin?  I'm curious to  the outcome of this repair. You haven't named the car Christine have you?

Ha. Ha.

The pin is still in place on the transmission side.

When it was parked, not running, the gears miraculously went through all the patterns. 1,2,3,4, R.

I started it up today for a run around the block. R, 2, 4 work. Parked, will still shift these.

1, 3, and 5 will not go into place. After parking it again, I tried these gears again. No cooperation from the car.

The pin was moving up and down maybe 1/4 inch... so maybe it dropped again, since we were unable to bend it in place. Sooo... maybe the pin blocks these gears?

Any out of the box thoughts?? Other possibilities? SOLUTIONS?

I'm only assume that the pin locks the gears when you install it to make the linkage connections correctly. You mentioned two pins? Again I'm only guessing one pin locks r-2-4 and the other locks 1-3-5?

One pin in the transmission, the other inside the cab of the car, to lock the shaft attached to the gear shift.



The top pic is the transmission pin. The bottom is at the gear shift, in the center console, under the um, leather cover? bellows?

Here's a pictorial of locking the transmission and gear shift in place.
https://photo.platonoff.com/Auto/20050325.Saab_NG900_Shifter_Alignment/?all

And how I took off the broken linkage to replace with the one that is new to me.
https://photo.platonoff.com/Auto/20050404.Saab_NG900_Old_Style_Shifter_Linkage/?all

OK, so when you have the car in third gear is the shift shaft straight up? We don't want to see it leaning towards the drivers side. Are both pins out?  When parked and engine not running it sounds like you can go through all gears is that how it is now? Can you confirm that the transmission is in say 5th gear and with the clutch in, start the car and confirm that is in gear by just letting the clutch out a bit, just a bit to see if it is in gear.

I'll see in the morning...