Hi,

We're having real problems with our 740 GL 2.0 140,000 miles 1989 manual 5 speed gearbox.

When the car is used for more than an hour trying to drive off in 1st gear becomes a nightmare. From standstill the whole car will judder or shake if you try and pull off in 1st. I mean, it's REALLY bad, and sounds like the whole engine wants to come off its mountings. The only way to get around it is to use lots of clutch and very high revs.

Also, it doesn't judder if you try and drive from a standstill in 2nd gear, although difficult and slow to get away, at least the car doesn't feel like it's about to fall apart. And finally, using reverse gear doesn't make the car judder from standstill, so could it be something wrong with the transmission (1st gear?) rather than the clutch?

We recently had to have the gearstick replaced because the reverse selector was stuck, and the mechanic told us he lowered the transmission to do it. Could it be that it wasn't put back together properly?

Any advice really appreciated.

Simon.