Gear stick replacements - worn and sloppy

[jcfx11]

Hi,

Another one of those jobs on the list ... the gear stick selector mechanism is worn, the ball section moves up and down 2 or 3 mm and the nylon bush appears worn too leaving quite a slop in the selector mechanism. I have already replaced some components at the gearbox which made a sizeable difference, I would like to be a bit more precise if possible.

I think the selector mech is obsolete so no new old stock as it were. Are there any off the shelf replacements or parts I can buy to resolve this ?~

Thanks

John

[jcfx11]

Did a bit of dismantling, found the ball completely dry, no grease on it and it was a bit rusty. The plastic bushes were in good order. I gave it all a clean, put some grease on the ball and reassembled it. One change I made was to cut a shim out of thin copper sheet, maybe 1mm thick (39mm OD, 30 mm ID) and placed it on top of the plastic bush and under the large circlip that holds the gear stick and bushes in the receptacle. It has made a substantial difference to the side to side freeplay.

Job done, good enough !

John

[NoahR]

John, do you have any pictures of what you did as well? I'm in a very similar situation, but its so bad I basically can't get to 5th or reverse.

[jcfx11]

Sorry, hadn’t seen your message, it’s all back together now, will try to collect some info tomorrow. It made a huge difference when done.

John

[jcfx11]

This photo is of the before state. The ball is dirty and has no grease, the catch is a bit sticky and when you move the stick to the right to select reverse the white plastic bearing moves up towards to top of the gear lever thus reducing actual gear linkage travel. The copper shim reduces that upward movement.. I've annotated the photo.

Steps

1) remove the leather shroud
2) Unscrew gear knob
3) Unbolt the rubber gear seal/cover

You can now manoeuvre the gear change half way out of the tunnel to give you access to the mechanism.

You can now access the big circlip, remove it, you will need stout circlip pliers, I found my cheap pair just didn't have the rigidity necessary.

4) remove big circlip
5) Manoeuvre the lever and plastic bush out of the socket, I found there was a wavy shim steel spring at the bottom of the socket. the plastic bush sits on this I presume to remove free play.

Inspect the plastic bearing for wear etc. If all is good then clean it up and apply some grease to it, maybe lithium grease. I didn't have any and just used bearing grease. If its too badly worn then you need to think about replacement ...

Make a shim, I used copper sheet cos I had some, 1mm thick I think.

Gear change before

Gear lever notes

Copper sheet shim

Reverse steps to reassemble, clean and grease all parts, insert plastic bushes and gear lever back into housing (a faff) place the shim directly on top of the white plastic bush and then replace the big circlip, the circlip will hold he shim in place. Ensure the shim isn't lodged in the recess the circlip fits into, adjust shim as necessary. Hopefully this will help, I found the plastic bearings in mine had no real wear.

[jcfx11]

Should have said, I had already replaced the gear pivot pin and bushes at the gear box, SJS part nos

A100F6113S
A100F6114S

And at some point I will replace this as the engagement pin is worn

A100F6112S

These are all accessible on top of gear box

[NoahR]

Thank you for all the infomation John! - Very helpful indeed.

Earlier today, I pulled apart the gear shifter setup and found that the bracket that attaches the gear shifter assembly to the chassis snapped on one side - swapping that should certainly help with shifter feel, haha!

I did, however, spend a good hour trying to remove the circlips for the gear change cables at either end, and couldn't - I should have assumed there was a tool todo so, thanks for mentioning.

I'll take a look at making a shim.

Thanks again!

[NoahR]

You can now access the big circlip, remove it, you will need stout circlip pliers, I found my cheap pair just didn't have the rigidity necessary.

Do you remember the design/style of the tool you used in the end? I can only really find the tools for installing them (which I imagine I'll be able to make do without), but I can't quite understand how the pliers would remove the circlip/e clip because they don't have the normal little holes in them.

Apologies, silly question, but I can't quite work it out!

[jcfx11]

To remove the big circlip on top of the mech I bought these from Amazon. There is a smaller circlip on the right hand side of the mech you will need to remove as well to aid jiggling the bush out.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09TSHQNXH/ ... RhaWw&th=1

I did the work without disconnecting the gear cables, if thats what you are thinking of.

The pivot pin at the gear box is easy, just use a flat screwdriver to remove the clip. The gear linkages at the gear box is just a complicated R clip and pulls off with pliers.

Hope this helps

[NoahR]

Thanks for the reply John.

Ah indeed you're right, I was on about the E clips around the gear cables, not the circlip around the gear shifter. - I can't get the former off with a flat head screw driver or with pliers, as there's a lack of clearance. Back to the drawing board, haha.