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gear stick

9 May 2008, 12:31pm
Umm screwed on my gear stick and the main bar back today, but come across 2 problems at the rear end there is a weld between the rod and the upright and this wont fit in the gap allowed between the clamp and the stop on teh chassis (suspect I need to grind back the weld - always a bit nervous about that).

More significantly though at the front when I put the tunnel cover over the gearstick its obvious its gonna hit the tunnel before reaching 5th/reverse.

Did everyone else have these two problems too.
9 May 2008, 12:43pm
David

Yes to the both, and yes I ground off some weld.

In the matter of the tunnel end, the fix I done was to grind off about half the head of the bold, and turn it round, it seemed to work for me and I belive someone else I told, may of been Limabit, even so its still a bit tight.

Steve
9 May 2008, 12:57pm
Thanks, re-assuring to know its a known feature.

Yeah can see that grinding off part of the head and turning around may provide a fix. Will do that I think when I have the gear change and gearbox in place so know how much play I need to add.
9 May 2008, 4:33pm
David,

I found it better to replace the main shaft with a straight length, else the rear didn't run smoothly in the green polyurethane bush. I chamfered the bush, rather than grind away weld.

John
9 May 2008, 5:22pm
Don't remember doing any of this to the gear change bar.:confused:

All I did was straighten the bar and bolted on.
9 May 2008, 6:19pm
I only needed to straighten the bar and all was well but on the issue of the ali tunnel around the gear stick I had to butcher mine as it caught in 1st and reverse by quite a bit!

Aactually on my car I dont think I have any laser cut panels left think they are all craigs grinder cut now to fit :razz:
10 May 2008, 6:02am
I had to do nothing to the ali tunnel either. It must be a more K series thing is all I can think ond honda Type R. Don't think Merlinman in the honda D16 had this problem either.
10 May 2008, 9:32am
I didn't have to cut my tunnel - it's absolutely fine as it was supplied. I could have got by with just bending the rover shaft straight, but it annoyed me that it would never be dead straight, so I binned it.
11 May 2008, 9:23am
Not surprised you started from scratch John

Again probably different to the K series. But I stripped my gear change cables and rod out yesterday.

The cables at the end was banana shaped after very little use. So I straighten up. Tested push and pull. Stiff as a board every so often. Now at least I know why it was getting difficult to select second and so other gears.

So I've gone down the route of MGF parts as this used the PG1 box. Gear box end is now done. Just need to figure out the gear stick end. But even with the gear stick assembly attached to the chassis, what a difference in selecting gears!
11 May 2008, 4:53pm
John, you may want to contact holgate86 aka Brian! I have his mobile if you need it as he completly changed his to all mgf linkage including gear stick, selector,gearbox end, the lot and it made a huge differance

Craig
11 May 2008, 5:51pm
Hi Craig.

Had Merlinman down today. Yep doing the same thing. Rear end is done. Just need to weild a couple of brackets to the MGF gear linkage cradle and hopefully job done. Even without the gear cradle being secure, feel such a difference. Can't wait!