I am in the last phase of my JWest conversion of linkage and Rennshift shifter. I have looked over all the threads I could find and have a question...

The rear linkage uses 2 inserts into the U-Joints and the instructions say to use the modified tube from the linkage and cut and weld it. Okay that is fine, I get it. But the slop in the tube versus the pieces to weld is pretty significant.

How have you all handled that? Shimmed it, added some material, etc?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Larouex

I made a split sleeve from thin wall tubing. Besides welding at the end of the tube I drilled the tube and sleeve close to the inner end of the spine insert and did a couple of plug welds.

The tube and splined end typically meet at a significant angle, so the slop is actually welcome for allowing initial setup and alignment (must be done on the car due to the angles required). If the tube and end were the same size, they could only be assembled on-axis, and would not align with the u-joints when the joints are attached to the other linkage on the car.

Once the tube is tacked to the ends on the car, remove and split/form the tubing to fit well, or just build up weld to fill the gap on the solid end until it meets the thin tube.

Thanks for the explanation James. I know what to do now.

Larouex