Note re the beer tin - best if its Boddingtons as they are steel whereas most are ali!
Gearbox-end gear change linkage
- Thread starter zcacogp
- Start date
Well, it's done. Not as bad as I thought it would be, and the advice given on this thread was invaluable, thanks chaps. You can get the rear silencer heat shield off fairly easily if you take the rear two exhaust mounts off (they unbolt), and you can drop the gearbox down a bit by backing out the two large bolts holding the cross-beam on. This gives tolerable access to the top of the gearbox (I have smallish hands, which helped a lot.) The bolts all came out with a bit of persuasion and some penetrating fluid and the ratchet spanners were invaluable.
I made a new piece to replace the stabiliser bar, like this:
It is just as was recommended on the earlier link; I bought two go-kart tie rods from eBay and measured the right length (84mm), cut them down, re-tapped the hole in one end (the one with the right-hand thread) and put it all together. The new piece bolted straight into the place of the old stabiliser bar and didn't foul anything.
And the result? It's an improvement. Not a huge one, but a good one which you notice immediately. The old bar has a form of primative rose joint on each end of it, but there was wear and slop in those joints and hence the new bar is an improvement. It has given the gearshift a significantly more 'mechanical' feel than before, partially because the old stabiliser bar was cushioned with wodges of rubber which are now out of the system. I'm very pleased with the result.
Things to note;
- No pictures. Sorry Simon, but the access was such that there was very little to see and it was all done by touch. I couldn't have taken photos as I couldn't get a camera in there, and it would all have been too close to the parts I was photographing to focus. Apologies.
- I found another area with play in it on the car while I was doing this; the join from the long gearshift bar which runs the length of the car to the shorter bit that is on top of the gearbox has rotational play in it. And a fair bit too, which manifests itself as side-to-side play in the gearlever. This is the join which has a pointed bolt screwed in from the side, with a rubber boot over it - the joint that needs to be undone if you remove the gearbox. I don't know how this has happened, but there is definitely play there - I had someone sit in the car and wiggle the gearlever from side to side while it was in gear, and I could feel the play from underneath with my fingers. I tightened up the bolt in the side but it didn't much help. If anyone has any ideas what to do about this then please let me know - I'm a little stumped at the moment.
- I bought two go-kart tie rods (they come in pairs), and therefore have a spare one. I have cut this down to the right length to do the job, and tapped it and re-assembled it so it is ready to go on the car. If someone wants to buy this off me (along with the bolts, nuts and washers necessary to make it work, all in A2 Stainless Steel) then drop me a PM. It's effectively all the new bits in the picture above.
Oli.
ETA: Another point worth mentioning, and with particular thanks to Rob for his input to the thread on the last page. The large nylon bit which he shimmed didn't seem to have much play in it at all on my car, to the extent that I couldn't have fitted some (Boddingtons) shims in if I had wanted to. The join where the two shafts meet was much more of a problem, and should be the next bit to tackle.
I made a new piece to replace the stabiliser bar, like this:
It is just as was recommended on the earlier link; I bought two go-kart tie rods from eBay and measured the right length (84mm), cut them down, re-tapped the hole in one end (the one with the right-hand thread) and put it all together. The new piece bolted straight into the place of the old stabiliser bar and didn't foul anything.
And the result? It's an improvement. Not a huge one, but a good one which you notice immediately. The old bar has a form of primative rose joint on each end of it, but there was wear and slop in those joints and hence the new bar is an improvement. It has given the gearshift a significantly more 'mechanical' feel than before, partially because the old stabiliser bar was cushioned with wodges of rubber which are now out of the system. I'm very pleased with the result.
Things to note;
- No pictures. Sorry Simon, but the access was such that there was very little to see and it was all done by touch. I couldn't have taken photos as I couldn't get a camera in there, and it would all have been too close to the parts I was photographing to focus. Apologies.
- I found another area with play in it on the car while I was doing this; the join from the long gearshift bar which runs the length of the car to the shorter bit that is on top of the gearbox has rotational play in it. And a fair bit too, which manifests itself as side-to-side play in the gearlever. This is the join which has a pointed bolt screwed in from the side, with a rubber boot over it - the joint that needs to be undone if you remove the gearbox. I don't know how this has happened, but there is definitely play there - I had someone sit in the car and wiggle the gearlever from side to side while it was in gear, and I could feel the play from underneath with my fingers. I tightened up the bolt in the side but it didn't much help. If anyone has any ideas what to do about this then please let me know - I'm a little stumped at the moment.
- I bought two go-kart tie rods (they come in pairs), and therefore have a spare one. I have cut this down to the right length to do the job, and tapped it and re-assembled it so it is ready to go on the car. If someone wants to buy this off me (along with the bolts, nuts and washers necessary to make it work, all in A2 Stainless Steel) then drop me a PM. It's effectively all the new bits in the picture above.
Oli.
ETA: Another point worth mentioning, and with particular thanks to Rob for his input to the thread on the last page. The large nylon bit which he shimmed didn't seem to have much play in it at all on my car, to the extent that I couldn't have fitted some (Boddingtons) shims in if I had wanted to. The join where the two shafts meet was much more of a problem, and should be the next bit to tackle.
Andy, thanks for that tip; I've trundled off to Tipec and posted on the thread where Jon mentioned he had a solution. I'll see what he says ...
In the meantime I've had a drive of the car since fitting the stabiliser bar, and can happily report back that it's a great improvement on the way it was before! My last post was a little lukewarm - and unfairly so as the gearshift is much, much more precise than it was before. The main impression is that it is a much shorter throw (although there is no short-shift kit installed), probably because much more of the gearstick movement is being translated into gearbox movement. It's firmer to use, the 'feel' of the gate is much more clearly defined and it's a delight to use! I rebuilt the gearstick about three months ago with a home-made stainless steel pin to replace the old worn-out pin and that, combined with the rose-jointed stabiliser bar, has dramatically improved things.
I'm happy. If I can solve the problem of the rotational play at the bar joint then I will be very happy! [
]
Oli.
In the meantime I've had a drive of the car since fitting the stabiliser bar, and can happily report back that it's a great improvement on the way it was before! My last post was a little lukewarm - and unfairly so as the gearshift is much, much more precise than it was before. The main impression is that it is a much shorter throw (although there is no short-shift kit installed), probably because much more of the gearstick movement is being translated into gearbox movement. It's firmer to use, the 'feel' of the gate is much more clearly defined and it's a delight to use! I rebuilt the gearstick about three months ago with a home-made stainless steel pin to replace the old worn-out pin and that, combined with the rose-jointed stabiliser bar, has dramatically improved things.
I'm happy. If I can solve the problem of the rotational play at the bar joint then I will be very happy! [
]Oli.
Further update (should anyone care!) Suspecting the pinch bolt was somehow at fault and thus causing the rotational play in the linkage join, I bought another one from my local OPC. £3.07p for a 15mm bolt was excessive [], but the nice chap in the parts department gave me a 7p discount - thanks Greg!
And the new part proved that the old bolt was the problem, but not for the reason I thought; while the profile of the point on the end of the old one was perfect, the bolt was slightly too short so was tightening on the shoulder rather than with the point on the inner rod. A slightly longer replacement bolt with a bit of threadlock later, and ALL the play from the gearshift is now gone! It's now ... very very precise indeed. Much more precise than I thought a 944 gearshift ever could be, with just about no surplus movement of the gearstick in any direction. It's very crisp - not quite as crisp as an MX5 gearstick (which is about as crisp as I have ever experienced) but not far off. And it never ceases to surprise me how much more responsive the rest of the car feels when you tighten up one of the major controls.
All in all, I'm very happy and throughly recommend the two mods I made; new pin on the side of the gearlever and a rosejointed stabiliser bar on top of the gearbox. Total cost of both is less than £20, and they probably account for a couple of hours work.
Oli.
], but the nice chap in the parts department gave me a 7p discount - thanks Greg! And the new part proved that the old bolt was the problem, but not for the reason I thought; while the profile of the point on the end of the old one was perfect, the bolt was slightly too short so was tightening on the shoulder rather than with the point on the inner rod. A slightly longer replacement bolt with a bit of threadlock later, and ALL the play from the gearshift is now gone! It's now ... very very precise indeed. Much more precise than I thought a 944 gearshift ever could be, with just about no surplus movement of the gearstick in any direction. It's very crisp - not quite as crisp as an MX5 gearstick (which is about as crisp as I have ever experienced) but not far off. And it never ceases to surprise me how much more responsive the rest of the car feels when you tighten up one of the major controls.
All in all, I'm very happy and throughly recommend the two mods I made; new pin on the side of the gearlever and a rosejointed stabiliser bar on top of the gearbox. Total cost of both is less than £20, and they probably account for a couple of hours work.
Oli.
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