The problem:

- gears feel sticky/stiff, dropping into neutral the gear stick doesn't centre itself as seen below.

The solution:

- take apart the gear selector plate, thoroughly clean, grease, replace worn bushes with new ones.

This is a diagram of the gear selector:

The red "rod" (part 12), goes through the housing (part 8). The housing has bushes on both sides. You need to get to this, clean out the housing, grease and replace the bushes.

Parts required:

- new top hat bushes (I ordered mine from Ned @ auto lusso for £5 delivered)

- grease I got (a huge tub of Castrol multi-purpose grease for £6.99 from halfrauds)

The guide:

Step 1: removing the battery

- Open bonnet, identify battery, remove negative positive clips

- remove the battery strap via the nut hidden away on the left hand side between the engine and battery

Hidden nut will be a ***** to reach unless you've got a nice socket extension. Otherwise prepare for some struggling and knuckle scraping:

- you will also need to remove the nut attaching the cable from the left hand side on the relay box:

- now you can remove the battery, you will see the battery tray:

Step 2: removing the battery tray

- remove the 4 nuts located on the right hand side wall of the tray:

- remove the fuse box lid:

- unscrew nut holding the cable on the right hand side of the fuse box and push to one side:

- now you can pull the battery tray up amd upwards yourself (although it's still attached you'll now have enough space to work on the gear selector plate)

Step 3: taking apart the gear selector plate, clean, grease, replace bushes

Closer look:

- remove the nut, washer and metal twig thing:

- you can pull away the part attached to the centre pivot:

(while that's out, I gave mine a good cleaning)

- slowly and gently tap out the gold bolt, I had a rubber hammer thing which suited the job nicely:

The washers are on both sides on the "gold bolts" housing. Difficult to spot but they're there. I'm pointing at one in the picture below:

- take out the dry, busted old bushes. (mine felt like they had been super-glued on, had to literally peel on of themoff using a screwdriver) old bushes:

- you will need to thoroughly clean the housing for the gold bolt you just tapped out. Make sure it's squeaky clean, grease up nicely and the new bushes should easily slide in. If they don't slide in with ease you haven't cleaned/greased it properly!!

These are the new bushes:

- clean and grease the gold bolt/rod and place back in the housing:

- replace back that piece you removed off the gold bolt:

- put back the metal twig thing, washer and nut:

OPTIONAL!!

Step 4: cleaning and greasing the ball joints. (i did mine)

- using a pair of pliers (not to squeeze but jam under and push up) pop the ball joint on both the rods:

On mine the grease had dried up and was like dust in there)

- clean, grease, pop back on

Step 5: putting it all back!

- battery tray and cable back to the fuse box:

- battery back in, not forgetting the strap, relay box cable etc etc. Just work your way back!

- realise all that for these two little things:

Step 6: admire and check your pride and joy

Feels perfect now, gear stick springs back to the centre in neutral.

If anyone needs a hand or anything give me a shout, illbe more thanhappy to help.

A lot of thanks to Ned @ auto lusso for the advice and info, plus the phone call giving me directions when I got stuck!!