Custom made shift linkage and lateral links!

[gijonas]

So I pulled my car in the shop for a few days this week to change out the old shot transmission and put new tires on and tighten stuff and this and that and the other thing ect.While i was at it I decided to do away with the old stock shift linkage B.S.,I had enough of the hacky/sloppy play in the original nylon socket and decided to make a more robust and precise setup as well as add more throw reducing geometry to linkage as well.



This is the suspect...get rid of this for the first step.





For my socket joint i sacrificed a 5/8 heim joint.



Joint with shaft cut off.



Joint welded to stock support rod in the proper orientation.




With that done I know need a way to fasten the shift rod to the joint,I did this by pulling off the stock nylon ball and machining a brass sleeve to fit the heim joint.





Also the bottom of the shift rod needed to be drilled and tapped 10x32 to accept an allen bolt and washer which keeps the shift rod from pulling up and out of the joint.



pretty much done aside from assembly!








As for the results... God damn if that didnt change the whole feel of the car lol.You may notice in the pics that the hinge point for the shift rod is also moved up for shorter throw,I basically altered the geometry as much as possible without having to modify the trans tunnel.It ended giving me about 1.5 inches of movement needed to go from neutral position to any gear .Not to mention the incredible crisp feeling that comes from getting rid of any play whatsoever with the heim joint.


After lunch:

Last year I bought adjustable rear lateral links by "godspeed" on ebay.Dont buy them.They were sweet at first but the heim joints that they come with are garbage,after 6 months they wear out and every time you hit a bump it sounds like a coffee can full of marbles in the rear of your car.With the rear links that the sway bar attaches to I just went back to stock as they have a large cam bolt for adjustment which is sufficient.However I found that I could not get my alignment close at all due to the front ones seeming too long? I suspect that i just got the wrong part but rather than looking into it I just cut the up and made my own adjustable ones.











So there you have it,lemme know what you guys think.

[kimokalihi]

Badass! Nice work.

[evolutionmovement]

Awesome! I can imagine the shifting is amazing now. Going from the rubber OEM shift knob to a solid wood one made a huge difference in terms of increased feel so eliminating the slop in the linkage itself must=joy.

[cj91legss]

Man you're doin some good work there. you should get into making your own lateral links and make some cash off that stuff.

[93forestpearl]

Nice work. I need to make some lateral links my damn self. It's down the list however.

[gijonas]

you should get into making your own lateral links and make some cash off that stuff.

I used to make and sell a variety of things years ago including adjustable control arms for datsun s30 z cars,I am really no longer interested just due to the liability aspect of things.

[93forestpearl]

What kind of material did you use?

[gijonas]

What kind of material did you use?

For the rear links?

Well the right hand threaded bungs are universal chromoly weld on bungs and the left hand threaded ends were cut off the old godspeed links and welded onto the stock link.The center afjuster is also taken from the old links and has a right hand thread length of threaded rod mated to it.