Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 12:13
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

I've got a Ford Fiesta St, 56 plate, 60k miles.

The gears get extremely stiff when its been running for around 30 minutes. I've had the gearbox oil change, which hasn't helped. Garage is recommending changing the gear cables (?), but aren't sure that this will fix the problem.

Any ideas? I am a complete novice when it comes to cars, but don't want to keep trying things (and spending money), until I know what the cause of the problem is. Any advice / experience would be much appreciated.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 14:15
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - unthrottled

So easy to change when cold, butharder as things warm up?

I would suspect that the clutch isn't releasing completely. This can be checked very easily on a ramp.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 14:29
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - Peter.N.

I would agree, will it go into reverse when hot without crunching?

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 14:39
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

Yep, couldn't feel better when cold. As soon as it warms up, it is extremely difficult to change gear.It is sometimes difficult to get it in reverse without releasing the clutch fully first.

How can I test if it is the clutch or not?

I have read that it may be the shift arm bushes. Seen lots of similar issues online, but few solutions. I am dreading the thought of having to replace the gearbox.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 14:49
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - unthrottled

How can I test if it is the clutch or not?

Probably by asking the garage to do it!

If you want to try it at home, you just have to prop up the front of the car so that both front wheels are off the ground. With the car in gear and the clutch pedal fully depressed, the wheels shouldn't spin at all. If they do, then the clutch isn't disengaging completely and that is why your gears are hard to select.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 15:31
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

Thanks, I'll see if they can check that.

Just spoke to someone at Ford and they had a similar problem with stiff gears. In that case it was something to do with the linkage. Again, haven't a clue what that is referring to.

Edited by CousinElvin on 05/07/2011 at 15:42

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 16:13
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - unthrottled

That is a possibility-but, in my experience, a maladjusted linkage is not temperature sensitive. It is just as hard to shift when cold as warm. The temperature dependence points to the synchros struggling to synchronise the dogs-and this is usually because the clutch is not fully disengaging. It needs sorting quickly because forcing gears into position will damage either the synchros or the dogs in short order.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 16:19
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - Peter.N.

Check and see if it will go into at least some gears without the engine running, if it does and is then difficult with the engine running it will be the clutch dragging.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 17:17
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

Nice one. I'll give that a try once I've got it nice and stiff on my way home from work?!

Gonna drop it back off at the garage and get them to check the clutch etc. Any view on if the shift arm bushes could be causing the problem as per what I have read on some other forums?

Thanks for all the advice!

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 17:18
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - madf

When cold, gearbox oil is viscous. When warm , it's less viscous.

Classic signs of a dragging clutch.. the drag of the oil when cold makes gear changing OK. When it's warm, the drag disappears...

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 17:52
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin

May be a stupid question but...

To test if it is the clutch, basically get the car warm to the point where it is stiff, switch it off and just try and change gears (no need to depress clutch). If its easy to change gear, we're looking at a clutch issue?

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 19:44
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin
Just tried changing gear when switched off. Made no difference - just as stiff

Does this rule out the clutch as the source of the problem?
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Tue 5 Jul 2011 19:57
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - Peter.N.

I would think it probably does but I cant think what else can be causing it. Don't know if it has rod or cable change, if its cable could possibly be tightening up when hot. You need someone to look at it I'm afraid.

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Tue 5 Jul 2011 21:45
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - CousinElvin
Yeah, GK Ford has recommended a cable change so its the next thing we were planning to try. Don't understand how that would cause it to get stiff though; I assume they work under tension, therefore as they heat up and expand the gears would become looser?

Hopefully that will solve the issue and I won't have to sink any more money b***** money into the thing. I'll let you know how it goes.

Any more suggestions would be welcome
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Mon 15 Aug 2011 20:23
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - Kungfauxn00b

Hi CousinElvin,

Did you ever get to the bottom of this as I'm having the same issue on my 2005 Zetec S and was going to look into putting it in to a garage but thought it would help (and hopefully save some money) knowing what the issue was first!?

Cheers,

Dave

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Tue 24 Jan 2012 14:56
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - TerryST150

I saw this thread and since i have found the answer thought i woudl sign up to help my fellow Fiesta drivers out.

very recently this started to happen to my car and not wanting to spend a fortune paying mechanics to check things out and formulate possible fixes i decided to try out some suggestions from the ST club i frequent and the fix i found there resolved the issue.

The issue appears to be related to the gear linkages on the underside of the gear box. The gear shift arm's nylon bushes were dry/expanding which causes them to tighten up.

What needs to be done is to re-lubricate the linkage and also clean up teh nylon bushing then refit or get ford to replace/repair this.

From what i have seen it appears to be a common fault and can easily be rectified. I am a member of an ST forum and luckily there is a self help guide on there. but for those who are not confident mechanics then i advise a trip to the garage and explai this to them to help get this resolved.

Hope you all benefit from this and it solves the gear change issues for you.

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Mon 16 Jul 2012 14:19
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - themobilegarage

I am a mobile mechanic had a customer with a 55 reg fiesta 1.25 zetec, would drive absoulutly fine when cold. get it hot and you had a right fight to get third and forth gear. clutch seemed fine easy to get reverse no aparent other problems just poor gear selection when hot. removed the gear box linkage/cabels, removed gear box selector arms. cleaned them all up lubed them with grease. now works fine selects all gears fine when hot!! the funny thing is they didnt seem tight when cold, if I hadent reserched the issue I would have probably ruled them out. it seemed like a recon box was needed but thankfully not!! :)

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Mon 12 Nov 2012 15:23
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - twincamescort

just like to add my similar problems 2006 ST ... it was fine when cold but stiffened up when driven / hot even in winter. heavy selector lever under plastic cover was feeling fine when disconnected cable etc but ! discovered that the plastic bush in arm was barrel shaped, tight in center loose at ends ... hence rocked at ends giving appearance of being fine.

removed the arm to find this tightness as it was reluctant to come off but delicate persistance paid off, polished the pin and borrowed a 12 mm reamer to carefully open it and parralell the bush, refitted and its been fine.

Nylon / Acetal or plastic bushes expand dramatically with little temperature from pivot pin so hope this can save mega £ s uneccessarily ... a very cheap first effort / check

Dave O

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Thu 7 Nov 2013 18:52
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - 547HEW

Just had the same issue on my son's 55 plate 1.25 Zetec Fiesta. The nylon bush was grabbing a little when cold, but an hour into a journey it became very hard to change gears. Removed the arm, and pivot pin from the fron of the gearbox. Reamed the nylon bushes out to give a slight rocking clearance on the cleaned up pin. Reassembled with moly grease. He reports the gearshift now as "really, really good".

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Thu 15 Nov 2012 18:26
Ford Fiesta St '56 - Stiff Gears when Warm - MrEckerslikefromRamsbottom

Yes, it seems to be a common fault. There are many threads on this forum asking for a solution, and I suppose some Fiestas must be worse than others. Not having access to a pit or a lift, when my linkage gets stiff I just get on my back and stick my arm under and squirt an aerosol can of Duck Oil around, and that clears the problem for a good few months!

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