Vellios-JWest shift linkage progress thread, Started fabbing Vellios/JWest shift linkage Options

[914dave]

Now that my six conversions has progressed the point where the rust is out of the chassis and the 3.2 mated to the 915 are mounted in the car. I'm taking this winter to fabricate shift linkage from the Vellios 915 to the JWest shifter. After finishing the rebuild of the 915, I realized that the shift pattern would be reversed in the car. 5th/reverse would be towards the drivers side of the car. I didn't like this idea. So I'm building a riser for the shifter to reverse the direction fo the pattern. I wanted the linkage to be very crisp. I'm using industrial U joints and spherical bearings where I can. This is the first part of the project, the firewall bushing. I'll be using the stock rubber accordian boot in this setup for weather protection. the following pix are fo the bearing and the nylon housing used to mount it to the firewall. the first pic is the original 914 tunnel shift rod machined down to fit in the spherical bearing. The final pic show shows it mounted with 2 screws, I'll drill for the other 2 when I get the motor out of the way.

[914dave]

With the shifter base being above the carpet I had to make a cover for the adjustment hole.

Here's what I decided to do.

Purchased industrial u joints from Manhattan Supply Company for the engine bay shift rod. They came blank , so I could bore them to fit. Using the original set screws from the stock shift rods. Here they are after machining.

The next step was to fabricate a shift rod for the engine bay. I used a 300 series stainless steel tube. It's 1" diameter with 1/16" wall thickness. The ends are solid plugs turned down to fit in the tube and in the u joints. The u joint ends have the tapered holes for the set screws. The tube was cross drilled in 4 places for welding.


The next step was assembly and trial. Here's the riser in place with the tunnel shift rod in place.

Installed the engine bay shift rod next.


Then I tried the shifter . The stroke was my main concern. It's hard to run through the gears with no rpms. There is just enough clearance on the firewall bearing. About 1/16 of and inch. Just enough!!

Well that's if for now. I still have to weld the oval flange from the original shift rod onto the firewall u joint. This way I can use the stock rubber accordian boot for weatherproofing. The rear u joint has it's own rubber boot to keep the crap out. It's time for a beer. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/beer3.gif) Throttle and clutch cable next.