E12 Tsport - Gear stick not returning to centre when in neutral

[dennis10]

Hi chaps,  As in the title, the gear stick is not returning back to the centre like it normally would in any car via a spring action (centre being between 3rd and 4th on any normal car, so if I change into 5th or 6th gear and then come out to go into 3rd or 4th, it just stays over near the 5th/6th gate rather than re-centering back to between 3rd or 4th and I need to physically pull the lever over.

Any ideas of where to look at first to resolve this issue?   I've pulled the gear gaitor up but to be honest it's covered in some sort of white grease and I'm not sure exactly which components would normally be responsible for re-centering the gear stick

[Cyker]

It sounds like the return springs have either gunked up or snapped - I'm fairly sure you are looking in the right place as the gear stick mechanism  end is responsible for that, but I think it's on the underside so you might need to get the central tunnel out to get at it...