I've been having trouble with gear shifting on occasion where the gear stick will not fully engage the gear I want. Also, driving home this evening the linkage seems to have gone completely out of adjustment so i really struggled to get 1st gear. 

I have since readjusted it and it seems fine however intermittently wont go fully into gear

a couple of weeks ago I replaced the gear linkage ends and the bushes on the top of the gearbox as the old ones wore out to the point i couldnt get any gears easily.

 

I think my gearbox mounts might be no good as i can rock the engine back and forth quite a bit and with little effort. It seems to be the dog bone mount at the bottom that moves alot.

My thinking is that the gearbox is moving so much during acceleration that it is causing the linkage to be put out of adjustment.

 

Another thing is that i have a clamped on exhaust flexi that i had to install after my old one rusted away, and the clamp seems to have worked itself loose and when you rock the engine the flexi piece slides in and out of the exhaust attached to the engine.

 

Again i think this is to do with the fact the engine is moving back and forth and has pulled the flexi in and out until the clamp has loosened.

 

Has anyone experienced any symptoms like this and how can i easily check the mounts?

 

Thank You!!

Sounds like you've answered your own question - if the engine's moving around excessively, yes it's probably the mounts. You can probably see it move when you rev it too if it's that obvious.

Easiest and cheapest order of things if readjusting hasn't fully sorted is dogbone mount, then gearbox shims, then new gearbox oil.

Guides on them all on here...

thank you for your responses,

I have just picked up the new dogbone mount ready to fit, only for me to be driving the car today and not being able to get 1st gear at all. All other gears went in fine, if not a little notchy.

I got it home in 2nd gear and disconnected the linkage completely only to find i couldn't engage first gear at all using the selector on top of the gearbox. 

Eventually with enough force and jiggling it went in ok and so reconnected the linkage and it works ok now if not very notchy in first gear.

This leads me to believe the gearbox oil needs changing which is what i am going to try next.

When you say 'shims' i though that was for the VRS 6 speed only. Mine is a 5speed 1.2 so didn't know anything about shims on that gearbox.

Ah, sorry assumed it was a vrs (when you assume you make an...) Yeh the shims are only for the 02m gearbox I believe.

On the plus side your gearbox oil should be cheaper than the vrs stuff!

well i didn't actually put that it wasn't a vrs so my bad

yeah the oil was £7 a litre which is nothing!

Indeed, just remember the golden rule, take the fill plug out before the drain plug!