xi shift selector rod broken

My shifter was acting up for a while. It wouldn't return to center and was pretty stiff going through the gears. Well, one of the ends on my shift selector rod broke off. This is not my favorite type of repair being my car is 4 wheel drive. I've read about people just reaching around the drive shaft and all these somewhat easy sounding ways of getting to the selector rod. Well I seem to have a transfer case in the way.

Does anyone know of a way to get the clip off the selector rod on the transmission side? I had to take off the exhaust and drive shaft to get at the shifter side and that was a bi**h. Now I unbolted the cross member and lowered the transmission down to the front subframe, but it's just not low enough to get at the front clip... Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hmmm. Can you get at the clip from inside the car now that the trans is dropped a bit?

If you do have to drop the trans, you may think about a new clutch too. Wish I could be more help . . .

Yeah, I was hoping to not take the trans out completely. I guess I should price a new clutch setup. Thanks for the suggestions.

drop the T case and you will be fine

I installed a short shifter (UUC) on my xi, and this is what I had to do to access that clip:

remove under body shields
lower exhaust enough to slide the heat shield that is behind the transfer case back
support tranny with a jack
remove the transmission brace completely
slightly lower the tranny just enough so you can get a hand up in there

yes dpg is correct you can do it that way I was just worried about all the stress on the motor mounts

After a long day of trying with just the tranny lowered a bit I was unable to get the clip loose. I had my brother talk to his friend who is a tech at BMW and he advised me to remove the transfer case. I was a little weary at first, but thought what the hell and did it. It made it a ton easier plus I didn't realize the bell housing between the trans and transfer case was open on top. Inside the bell housing there was all kinds of junk, which I was glad I could clean out. New shift selector rod is in and working well except for needing new return springs inside the transmission... Those will have to wait for the clutch to be replaced. Thanks for your input.

Hi OP,

Just out of curiosity, what made you think your selector rod was broken? My shifter started feeling very notchy after replacing the clutch and I was wondering if that could be the same problem for me.

Thanks!