The French diss-connection.

[Alkapal]

I have a strange story that i would love to unravel. I was recently in the south of Belgium (where no one speaks anything but French) and found myself in a sticky situation. On one of the hills up a beautiful forest pass my gear leaver seemed to get stuck in 3rd gear. No matter how hard my foot was on the clutch, the gear leaver refused to take the van out of gear. I eventually came to a stop because I was going up hill and had to keep it in neutral by keeping the clutch depressed. Once stopped I cut the engine and tried to get it out of the 3rd position while off, but it dit take quite a lot of force and then it just became floppy.. (almost if something came loose.) I think the van stayed in 3rd and that whatever connects the gear leaver to the selection of gears inside was not connected anymore. Also Because the tow truck seemed to battle to pull it onboard with the cable... it behaved very stifff so im assuming it was still in gear.
The strange thing is it took less that 2 hours for these guys to drive it out of their workshop after towing in, AND I was only charged for towing. So whatever it was that happened was not hard to repair and still leaves me perplexed as to what could have caused this to happen (or if I need to be concerned about it happening again.)
Unfortunately my communication with them was almost zero so I couldn't ask what had happened. I was also not allowed in the work shop, so I couldn't take a look at what went on.
Has a similar thing ever happened to you or do you know what came loose... if anything did?
The van is running fine and the gear exchange is as before...
Any light on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Sackmycook]

I recall the old T4's had an issue with a gear selector cable becoming disconnected which was an easy fix. Never heard of it on a T6 though

 

[whodat]

Yes,
I had that on a T4. Got stuck in reverse gear - whatever gear it was in.
As it tried climbing onto the front of the neighbour's car behind, I realised all was not well.
Had to crowbar the tyres forward once the engine was switched off, to part the two vehicles - luckily not more than a slightly noticeable scratch on the neighbour's car.
Called AA, mechanic, police, ambulance and fire and coastguard.

Ready to tow it to mechanic but the AA guy wanted to be sure there was a problem. Started it up after the neighbour had moved his car, and it was back to normal. No idea what it was.
Took it to mechanic as the clutch was starting to slip. Told him about the problem. He said he had never heard of that and to cross your fingers it doesn't happen again as that would be a gearbox problem.
It never did happen again.