Hi from Norway.
I bought this car yesterday in Stavanger and by the time I came home to Kongsberg the check engine appered in the dash as well as the manual shift via j Gate made another error in the dash, Gearbox Fault.

I was a little prepared for failures but still!

Reading some treads I found out that the check engine can wait but the manual gear selecting was a little more scary? I googled and found out that a plastic plate was thorn to break, and sure it had.. I was lucky to find two of the three pieces under the mechanism and started to think if i could actually repair the ****..?? as I could not find only this part to be awailable to buy.

I found a plastic piece that I could ''weld'' in place with a soldering gun and started the work.

I must say I'm pleased with the very cheap reair as it seems to work fine with smooth movement. :-)

I just tought I would share this as it is a fairly simple repair.

Jon

 

Just to add; 1998 XK8 with 173.000km on the clock.

 

So, a ZF 5HP25 box with 5 speed selector above . . . ie it has 2 - 3 - 4 on manual side of J-gate.

Common damage on many 5speed and later 6speed J-Gates . . . I have come to refer to this as the "Ham Fisted Auction House Hoodoo!". Interlock fails so yank on gear selector lever to drag it forcibly out of Park. Suggest you read my thread on the X308 forum where I did detailed write-up to solve exactly the same problem on exactly the same J-gate selector. Look for "Broken Gearbox . . . or was it?" Plenty of pics and advice.

Cheers,