cheap tricks to tighten up your shifter

[Larry" <rocco16v@netzero.com (Larry)]

TR-
  Some good ghetto points you have there.  I will vote for all but Tip #2.
It is SO much easier to just squeeze the cage together until the clearance
between it and the rubber ball is gone.

Larry  old crock and his old 'roc

> ...
>
> After spending an alarming amount of cash on all new shift bushings,
> linkage rods, bearings, ball assemblies and levers, I still had an
> annoying amount of side-to-side and front-to-back play in my shifter -
> something like 3/4" in every direction. With a little inspection I
> discovered this was because the metal parts in my shift linkage were worn
> out and the circular holes in the linkage had become oval-shaped.
>
> Now, being the cheapass that I am .. I don't want to go order a bunch of
> new $87 metal lever arms and relay bars and whatnot from the stealer. So
> instead, I rigged up the following solutions:
>
> TIP #1 - This tip is the easiest and has to do with the relay arm that is
> shaped like an upside down L and has the rubber-drumstick-ball attached to
> the bottom of it. On my car, I could grab this arm and shake it even with
> brand new bushings and it would jostle around. I even tried the solid
> plastic bushings from the A3 linkage but they didn't help I took the relay
> arm out and pinched the bottom bushing with my fingers and shook it. It
was
> moving around in the hole. So I took it out, wrapped electrical tape
> around the outside 4 times and pushed it back in place. It took a bit of
> effort to get it to snap in because it was such a tight fit... but the
> electrical tape isn't at a wear point so it will last for some time. Now,
> when I grab the arm and shake it, the whole car moves and the arm doesn't!
>
> TIP #2 - This tip is what many would describe as "ghetto", but it worked
> perfectly for me. The rubber-drumstick-ball that I was referring to had
> worn away at the "cage" surrounding it, introducing play to the system of
> levers. So my options were to either enlarge the ball, shrink the cage, or
> shim the cage somehow. I chose the last one because it was the easiest. I
> cut the top and bottom off of a pop can with some tin snips, made one cut
> from top to bottom then folded the remaining rectangle of aluminum in half
> several times to make a ~2mm thick pad (I rolled the sharp edges under,
> too). I made the width a little over twice that of the cage. Then I
> slipped this nasty contraption between the ball and the cage, centered
> the excess and folded the sides around the back of the cage, creasing the
> metal. Then I 'hooked' the two ends together so the pad won't come off.
> Yes, it used to be a pop can and now it's part of my shift linkage.. but
> now a lot of my front-to-back play is gone. I don't know if the aluminum
> will wear through but I'm hoping it won't since I greased the ball up real
> nice.
>
> TIP #3 - The L-shaped pivot thingy for the plastic ended relay rods. A
> major source of side-to-side play and a major pain in the neck, this piece
> was the #1 trouble spot in my linkage. I had already clamped the whole
> contraption in a vice while it was on the car to try and bend the bracket
> that holds it to hold it more snugly. That helped a little, but the real
> problem was the bottom hole in the bracket which was out of round. Now, I
> had lots of options here: I could drill it out and use a larger bolt..
> (more difficult than it sounds - the bolt is special), I could drill it
> out and use a sleeve bushing, I could weld the hole shut, grind the
> weld flat and drill it again. Instead, I chose to file the out of round
> spot a little, and wrap stainless steel tie wire through the hole several
> times to effectively shrink the hole. I had to use a dremel tool to make
> 'channels' for the wire to sit in so that the bracket would still be flush
> with the pivoting arm, but the wire wrapping worked very good. I was able
> to shim the hole down to just the right size for the bolt. Now, of the
> tips here.. this one will cause the most wear (on the bolt). But the other
> options for this trouble spot were more work, and I'm not only cheap.. I'm
> lazy.
>
> TIP #4 - I bought a brand new shift lever and bearing assembly (the lever
> that you actually hold on to in the car) with the hope that it would fix
> the play that the old one had. Nope, even though it was brand new the play
> was still there. So what did I do about it? I took the shift boot off so
> I could see the outer piece of the bearing, the inner round piece of the
> bearing and the splined sleeve in the very middle. Then I went and got
> a selection of small finishing nails and sat there placing them in the
> crack between the inner bearing and the splined sleeve until I found the
> perfect two nails (one for front to back and one for side-to-side) that
> eliminated the play. I was actually just fooling around at the time.. I
> didn't intend to leave the nails in. But the improvement was so good I
> said "screw it" and left them in. They haven't fallen out yet, but in a
> year or two I might have to switch to bigger nails if they wear a groove
> in the plastic (I don't think they will, though.. there's no movement
> where they are.. just force/pressure)
>
> TIP #5 - Make your own weighted shift rod. You should have done this a
> long time ago if you haven't already. Just buy a bunch of lead fishing
> weights, make a mold out of a couple 2x4s nailed together and notched for
> the rod, melt the lead with a propane torch and pour it in to the mold.
> Easy as changing your oil and it helps a lot. In case you couldn't tell I
> didn't come up with this one.
>
> I have about 1/4" of side-to-side play and 1/8" of front-to-back play
> now while out of gear. And I know where that little bit is coming from
> (the junction between the in-the-car shift lever and the long relay rod)
> and I intend to fix it in the next few days. Nobody cares, though.. so
> unless somebody asks I won't bother describing how I end up fixing it.
>
> So, if you're still with me, you're probably thinking "this guy is an
> idiot". And you're right.. but at least my car shifts 500% better than it
> did a few days ago. It's almost like having the tranny right under the
> gear shift (i.e. no linkage at all).
>
> I think I'm the only one who'd be crazy enough to do this kind of stuff to
> their car. Anyone want to disagree?
>
> -Toby
>
>
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