Short Throw Gear Linkage

[so1o]

I had this done from Rifle Range Motorsports yesterday, thanks CP.
All I can say to anyone who hasnt had it done is to go get it. This is certainly one of the best driveability mods you can get. Gear change is so much better, more controlled, obviously quicker, I will go as far as to say its changed the whole driving experience of my valver. There is hardly any sloppyness in the gears now, feels a hell of a lot better.

We had a Griffiths Quickshift Gear Change linkage to hand that we compared it to (thanks Jim :D ). The one that CP modified for my car looks near enough exactly the same as the Griffiths one and might even be a little better in the design, Griffiths has got a rubber/plastic bearing thingy whereas on my one CP made it out of aluminium.

Obviously i dont know how good the Griffiths linkage is in a car because i havent tried it, but im well pleased with the one CP made for me.

[Paul]

and how much did that set u back?

[Dare-devil]

Have you got a pics of the job..??

[Alex]

Rifle Range motorsports :lol:

[wisewood]

well it was marketed as "?50 while you wait"
so i would hope it wasnt more than that lol.

[Stuart]

well winter is coming and he will have bugger all to do (inbetween filling in forms for money), so he would need to diversify lmao

[so1o]

lol@cambridge, put it this way for ?50 its well worth it, sorry no pics.

[CP]

:lol:

Eventually sorted what to do :roll:

Involves:
1. Cutting, adding a bit of steel and moving the bottom ball joint (gear box end) about 10mm to the right as you look down on the gear box from the front of the car. (Its critical not to be too greedy and move it more - this was what i was having problems with - you'll up getting getting all gears except either 5th or reverse cos the mechanism will foul up on itself)
2.The upright which moves the top link assembly ( where it attaches to the gear lever rod with a clamp) needs to be cut and have about 20mm added to make it taller.
3.Finally the plastic bushes in the pivot where its attached at the rear of the engine are replaced with aluminium ones that I machined up.

The forward and aft movement between 1st and 2nd is about 12 - 13cm.

I will try to get some pictures done of the next one I do.

[Rick Draper]

CP, d the alloy bushes cut out all the slop in the linkage? I am going to sort this for mine tomorrow as i think this is the reason i can only get 1st-6th or reverse to 4th on my F28 gearbox! Its got the griff engineering quickshift thats been modded to fit the F28 by cutting a bit out of the linkage and welding it back together but it aint right yet and when you watch the linkage while someone moves the gearstick there is quite a lot of play in the center bushes. Rick

[mikeoxford]

does he really call himself rifle range msport? thats quite cool

[CP]

Yes basically.
The aluminium bushes help reduce the slop
Moving the end bottom balljoint outwards reduces the throw.
Lengthening the upright reduces side to side travel.

Slop elsewhere seems to be down to the gear stick ball joint and the ball joints but its mostly small beer

[mikeoxford]

Yes basically.
The aluminium bushes help reduce the slop
Moving the end bottom balljoint outwards reduces the throw.
Lengthening the upright reduces side to side travel.

Slop elsewhere seems to be down to the gear stick ball joint and the ball joints but its mostly small beer

youve just given the game away :D u wanna patent that

[Rick Draper]

Just found out what my problem with the gears is! We had to mover the outer bottom piviot inwards 10mm and i forgot to shorten the top bar by 10mm DOH! :oops: Better do that tomorrow then! Rick

[so1o]

as far as slop goes, i can honestly say that there is hardly any in it, its so tight and accurate, i cant describe it, has to be driven to get the full feel of it.

[Mark]

i cant describe it, has to be driven to get the full feel of it.
Right, all off to Solo's place to rant his car around ..... :lol:

[Dare-devil]

I will try to get some pictures done of the next one I do.

Sound good m8.. :wink: :D
Because i still have some problems, with how to do it my self. :(

[so1o]

lmao your very welcome mate,come and test it, working just of junction 9 today, and will be working in hemel tommorow, whatever takes your fancy lmao.

[BigRuss]

CP,

Would You be able to do build one of these up and send it through the post. You are too far away to just pop over!!

Still very interested though. I am on the verge of buying a Griffith engineering linkage, should I buy one or get one of Yours??

[Mark]

What we need to do is arrange a 'VISIT CP DAY' - then a bunch can get togther for a day out and get the linkages fitted together.....How many do you reakon you could do at once CP??

[CP]

Well I have ended up doing this cos mine and solo's gear linkages needed sorting and I found ways to improve them.

I have also fitted and used 2 Griffiths quickshifts and I currently have 1 on my Nova which has done prob less than 7.5k albeit hard miles. I was well happy with it til recently. Having had cause to have both of them back off, I was disappointed to find that 2 things have worn quite badly:

1. the rose (ball) joints really dont appear upto it and have got sloppy. I have looked into rose joints for other projects - I could be wrong but I suspect these may not be of the highest automotive grade - there are many grades and there's a large difference in cost. Automotive grade ones wouldnt wear as quickly as these IN MY OPINION - but I have been known to get things badly wrong esp. when i have a senior moment :lol: .

2. A critical part of removing the slop is the bushes in the central pivot which on both the std and my quickshifts are plastic with a rubber "O" ring to retain them snugly. The std ones have a secondary rubber packer washer. I have found considerable wear in my quickshift ones ( and std) - so much so that I was starting to have problems getting and keeping 2nd gear. I machined up 2 aluminium bushes and re-fitted without any other changes and the gear slection was fine again.

Having messed about and compared a couple of well used std ones against used quickshift ones I have noticed that none of the std ball joints have worn as badly as the quickshift rose jointed ones. The std ones seem fine to me - the only parts that really need replacing are the pivot bushes^. Ally ones are OK for experimenting with but I think they will wear so I hope to sort out brass or better phosphor bronze ones. I did consider small bearings but this might be a bit OTT and difficult to actually fit onto the car.

Whilst sorting Solos 2.0l linkage I found with experimentation that my alterations of the std linkage ended up very similar to the quickshift when I finally compared them - there's 2 fundamental changes to the positioning and size of the components as mentioned ^ which is the only way to make it fully short throw in all aspects.

Basically read what you will into this - its posted purely on a shareware/self help basis. Its just what I have found with my stuff - it could be different for others - I aint gonna argue with anyone either way. My opinion is that a std linkage can be modded to reduce throw, side movement and slop quite satisfactorily without needing to invest in expensive rose joints

PM me directly for any more info.

[Dare-devil]

Have you got any pics of the job yet m8..????