Close 5th Gear

[Floki]

Evening all,

I have an S40 1.8 2000, with reverse being left & up (Reno Box I believe).

It's my 1st 40 Series so was wondering if it is standard for 5th gear to be almost directly above 4th - there is very little in shift across ?

All the gears engage pretty nicely, well, as well as a 160k mile car can - but really noticed it when driving my other vehicle & 5th seemed to "throw" across to the drivers seat (slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean !)

I have read some posts/threads and was thinking it could be the lever bushes - but they seem to suggest it's mainly to cure floppy / poor gear change ?

Cheers in advance

[canis]

Yeah, ours is the same. 4th to 5th, one would imagine goes up-right-up. In practice it works better if you go diagonally up&right then up. So when changing, apply pressure rightwards before pushing it upwards. By contrast, changing down is a cynch, just pull the lever down and it'll find 4th dead easy.

I hope that makes sense.

[ITSv40]

Exactly as canis has described. The Renault box changes gears much, much nicer than the Volvo box.

Worn bushes in the linkage are a common problem, but an easy fix. You will know when the bushes are worn as it will be difficult to engage reverse or first or possibly fifth. My old p1 with the Renault box did 370,00mls and gear changes still good and smooth. Two oil changes and about five sets of bushes in that time. Still getting used to the Volvo box in my P2.

[Floki]

Cheers Canis & ITSv40

Puts my mind at rest + me crawling under it for a while... !

Thank you