Tailshifter, improving my tail shifter Options

[Mike1981]

Hello Everyone

I was asking JRust about his Suby Conversion and how it shifts.

He advised me to post a thread on here to get some advice.

Well, here goes:

I bought a 1970 914 with a tailshift 901 and a Suby Ej22 Motor

Love the car except for the shifting.

P.O. did a good job sorting the car out.

However he needed to fabricate a custom linkage rod to allow for the suby engine.

This has added to the vagueness in the linkage

P.O. has replaced the bushings, I have performed a visual and they look good

So far the only gear I can reliably find is 3rd

2nd is tough to find, sometimes I simply cannot find it and have to put it into 3rd lugging the car until it gets up to speed.

Also when shifting into 2nd and 4th it feels like the rod is flexing before it slides into gear.

1st is rarely used but I can find it if I allow RPMs to decrease.

4th is OK

5th is OK

I have accidentally put it in reverse grinding it (thinking it was 2nd) as well as when downshifting accidentally putting it in 2nd when I wanted 4th redline! owch!

I've crawled underneath, the linkage has play, and even the end of rod going into the shifting arm would need material added to take up slop.

Wondering what would be the best way to improve this?

New Shifter springs/Short Shift?

New rod/Linkage?

Or leaning towards cable shift as I have read where the tailshifter will never be good?

I have seen Kevin311's design and would like to do something like that if I could get some help on the plates.


If anyone can get a hold of Kevin311 I would really like to get the drawing for the plates he fabricated for his shifter it looked very good and he extended an offer to help others.

I have slowed down my shifting by grabbing the shifter with 3 fingers and feeling for the gears

Also use the 1 second rule (Clutch in move lever out of 2nd inot neutral count 1 second into 3rd) this helps but becomes unmanageable when driving in heavy traffic

Any Thoughts?

[Dave_Darling]

Pelican has a tech article on the subject: http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/9...ift_improve.htm

The short version is, check the bushings and the wear points. There are a couple that are not obvious, like the reverse lock-out plate in the base of the gear shift lever.

The Rennshift shifter is evidently a significant improvement over the stock piece, especially over a worn gear shift lever assembly. But it will only help so much if your bushings are worn severely or missing altogether.

Side-shift conversions can help a bit more, but they are significantly more involved. Going to a cable-shift setup is even more involved, but it lets you do some fabrication and problem solving which is fun if you like that sort of thing.

The Scooby trans with a cable shifter also sounds like an attractive idea, but that's even more work.

--DD