[Suttmann]

Hey guys, what is meant to be holding down the gearshift on the f10a? After my brother rebuilt my motor the gearshift is loose and pops out of gear sometimes and gets stuck in a gear, I am having to frequently open it from the top side and realligning the gears with a screwdriver before putting it back in, it has a wave washer in there but doesnt seem to be holding it down very well at all so im thinking there is meant to be a spring or something.

[MadMuz]

There will prolly be a bush under the plate with 3 holes holding the gearstick in the box. If it is missing it has prolly broken and fallen into the gearbox. It is plastic, so shouldnt have done any harm. The same thing happened to my 89 sierra shorty. The bush is available on ebay for about $8 or a kit with bush, plate and rubber boot for about $16. Check also the bolt that sticks into the slot in the gearstick ball, if this is bent or broken gearchange problems will occur too. To get the new bush on the gearstick ball under the plate and wavey washer, you have to dismantle the 2 parts of gearstick. When putting the stick with new bush back into the box, first file any burrs iff the ball around the ball's slot, or the bush will just shag out again. Grease the ball well.... I tipped a little 80-90 oil down the hole before putting greased stick back in and tightening the 3 bolts down, just to make sure there is plenty of oil in the area. Run it for a while then change the gearbox oil if I were you.... see if any old bush plastic comes out with old oil. Add new oil (80-90)

Hopefully your 83 is the same as my 89, if not, somebody else may give you better/differing advice....

[Suttmann]

I thiink ill put some pics up tomorrow of it, it doesnt have any plastic under the metal plate with 3 holes, just the wave washer, I just replaced the gearbox oil when the motor was put back in, but didnt sift through it to see what was in there.
Thanks for the advice! ill show this to my brother, as he was the one that pulled it apart. He may have a better understanding of it than me.

[MadMuz]

The plastic bush will have disintegrated, that is why it is missing (if yours is the same as my 89 sierra swb). Type in 'sierra gear lever top bush' into ebay and it is the first thing to pop up. If you can push pul your gearstick up and down about a centimeter and it keeps getting stuck in gears, this is the bush that is missing