I have a problem with excessively stiff gearchanges in my 1998 Felicia 1.6Glxi. All gears are equally stiff to engage - stiff enough to flex the gearknob - although neutral is slack as expected. I have recently renewed gearbox oil and greased all linkage pivots but there has been no change. Has anyone had similar problems who could offer any advice? Thanks.

will be the bolt seized at the bottom of the gear lever/linkage

Indeed. The bushes either side of the pivot have worn out on mine and the lever vibrates when driving.

Thanks very much for the helpful replies. I now know where to look.

Just to follow up my original thread.

I found a 'temporary' solution for this problem:

Inspecting the gearchange mechanism from underneath, I found some movement in the small ball joint at the top of the 'T' shaped pivot arm which effectively made the gearchange to be extremely stiff. The socket at the the top of the arm could physically be pulled back and forth over the ball.

I removed the M8 nut from the pivot securing bolt, at the lower end of this arm, and replaced it with an M8 Nyloc.

I then retightened this just to the point where the gearchange seemed to be acceptable. There is a fine adjustment between the the gearcahnge being 'tight' or 'free'.

This was a reduced torque from the original which is why the Nyloc is necessary to prevent to nut falling off.

Although I intended this as a temporary measure, prior to locating and purchasing the necessary parts, it still seems to be OK after a couple of months and perfectly acceptable to drive, apart from a slight clunk on occasions due to the movement in the ball joint.

Hope this helps with a cheap solution to anyone with a similar problem.

Chris.