OOOOPS!

The Fiero just will not shift properly and I found quite a bit of play in the shift bracket on the transaxle, so decided to order new bushings from Rodney Dickman. I had tried to get the pin out in the past but it just would not budge. True to form, the bushings arrived within a couple of days of ordering them, so I went out tonight to try and get the pin out. I had emailed Rodney to ask him how to get the pin out and his response was "Take the bracket out and work on it. It is easy to break that aluminum arm off. Try different things to get the pin loose. Go slowly." The way the bracket was mounted, you really could not see the arm he was talking about but after trying to get the pin to budge by driving a screwdriver in the head of the pin, found out the hard way. I thought the pin had started coming out but then found out the arm had broken off. There is another pin holding the bracket on that I ended up being able to get out rather easily. Once the bracket was out, I was able to remove the actuator pin rather easily. Ok, the arm broke off, so I decided to put the bracket in a vice and clamp the arm back in place. Then a hold was drilled and tapped to 10-24 threads. A stud was screwed in and double nutted to bold the arm in place. Not sure if it will be strong enough but at least the are is attached to the bracket again. I guess v groves could be ground in the crack and it could be welded but not sure if that would help hold it together or not. 

SHIFT BRACKET

PIN WITH NEW BUSHINGS

Not sure the fix will work but at least the two pieces are back together. Hopefully the new bushings will cure the shifting problem, as currently, once you are in a gear, you can not change it until you stop with out a bunch of grinding.

Until next post,

Randy