Random quick question

[mike74]

Afternoon peeps,

I'm puzzling over something just now; what does the adjustable rose joint at the end of the 6 speed gear linkage actually do (see link below)? Its the part on the picture below that comes out of the joint with the bellows around it at 45° and attaches onto an arm to control the 'arc' the shifter makes at the box. I'm wondering if I screwed the rose joint in a bit further, if it would take up any slack in the joint with the bellows around it by raising the whole linkage a smidge (and tighten up the gear change).
Anybody ever tried adjusting this before?

cheers for now,

mike

[mike74]

Nobody ever try adjusting this thing? I might fiddle with it at the weekend and see what happens....must remember to count how many turns I screw it in by, just in case!

[mike74]

Update:

Had another look at all this linkage yesterday but, with the exception of having my mate to hand to wiggle the gear stick for me. It turns out that the ball joint inside the rubber boot on the linkage has NO play in it at all (phew!). Likewise the rose joint at the front end of the linkage...but the same can't be said for where this bracket joins onto the gearbox stud. You can't feel anything by wiggling this mount by hand but as soon as the gearstick is moved side to side, the whole bracket/mount thing slops around by about 1" total! I pulled the tapered plastic bushes out of this to have a look and they're pretty worn
So now, it seems that I either need to get creative with some epoxy resin or I need to buy another linkage as its all classed as one bit.
OR, does anybody know if you can buy these little plastic bushes separately?

cheers for now,

mike

[mike74]

Final update:

Had a go at these plastic bushes with some epoxy resin yesterday. I filled up the grooves on them that fit over the spigots that stick out the metal bracket thing & re-assembled. Trying it out this morning on way into work has shown a massive improvement in the general feel and precision of gear changes.
Considering I already had some epoxy in the house, I'd consider this a saving of around £250, which is roughly what a new linkage would cost.
So, the morale of the story is that when diagnosing gear linkage issues, always have a friend available to wiggle the stick around for you and also have some epoxy to hand as well!

cheers,

mike

[Greg_S]

Have you any pics of the item you fixed up?

[mike74]

I haven't no but, I did come across some pics on here a while ago...will try and find them again later on

[mike74]

Right, this picture has been nicked from another post but shows the item I'm speaking about perfectly.
Although the whole gear stick now feels a LOT more positive, I think the I.D. of these bushes are a little worn too! When you slide the bushes onto the support stud by themselves and wiggle them, you can definitely feel a little play in them
My current thinking is to maybe take a tin foil baking tray and create a shim out of it. I think if I can get it rolled tightly around the stud that is fixed to the gearbox and a tight fit on the inside of the bracket, I won't even need these bushes any more...but that's a job for the weekend
Anyway, piccie:
BUSH.jpg

[mike74]

Well, after a fairly naff week at work I decided to take a half day yesterday and have a proper go at this. While having a smoke at the back door the other night, I was having a rummage through a box full of general bits n bobs trying to find an item I could modify for this purpose. I stumbled across a random white plastic elbow of unknown origins. Anyway, yesterday I trial fitted it and found the bore to be a good tight fit and the O.D. to be too big...perfect!. So after an hour with a file, gingerly removing material from the outside I have created the perfect plastic bush for this bracket. Because there was now something in between the original black plastic bushes, I had to remove the four tapered sections on each bush. These original bushes main purpose now is to serve as 'thrust washers' to sandwich the whole lot together.
The picture attached shows the new bush, the two modified original bushes along with the offcut of the elbow I b@stardised.
The result is monumental! Before, when the gear stick was moved side to side there was around an inch or so total movement at the bracket, now its about 1/4" and the majority of that is the actual bracket flexing slightly. Gear changes are a lot more precise now with minimal play at the stick.
I still have a slight issue with changing gears but I now think that's more to do with the oil in the box now as I couldn't realistically diagnose anything with this bracket flapping around.
For everyone's info, the dimensions of this bush is 10mm I.D. x 12mm O.D. x ~22mm long.