Tail shifter shaft, It's all worn out! Options

[Jaiden]

So I had the car up on Jack stands last night to take a closer look at some of the things I have on my To Do list and While inspecting the shift linkage I notice that instead of finding that my sloppy shifting is due to worn bushings I found that the actual shaft is worn out!!!

Also where the shaft sets into the tranny shift linkage should there be a bushing there or just grease?

Now how can I go about fixing this? I took a look at how the shaft is mounted and up front the bushing is good but I'm not sure how to remove the shaft.

I would like to either replace the shaft or possibly increase the diameter with added metal or even epoxy.

I don't mind the tailshifter as I feel a properly set up peice should work fine.

Any Ideas?

[lapuwali]

Yes. Red-Beard even recommends this (or brazing it up and grinding) for restoring old tail-shifters. To remove the shaft, you need to unbolt the holder back by the knife-and-fork thing (two nuts), and then unscrew the ball holder at the firewall end of the shaft. The shaft then pops off the ball on the forward end of the linkage, and pulls away. There should be a nylon bushing on the rear holder. There should also be covers over all of this, a bellows forward of the holder and a box aft of it, but they're not easy to source these days.

My shaft is also loose in the rear bushing, but it works (well, worked, it's out of the car now) just fine. That's really the least important area for good shifting. Make sure the cup under the shift lever is good, and the bushing just aft of the cup, the one at the firewall, and the two balls. Any play in any of these will slop the shifting substantially.

There's also even more linkage inside the tail housing, including a roll pin that slowly works loose and can cause lots of slop.

I agree that a properly set-up tail-shifter with all new bushings can work fine. The problem is there are so many more wear points than in the side-shifter, that it doesn't stay in good condition for long. There are only three nylon bushings in the side-shifter, and the internal linkage is much simpler (and lives in an oil bath). There are six nylon bits in the tail-shifter, and the internal linkage has 2x as many wear points.