I installed a Road Race oil pan on my V8. Now my shift rod is in the way. I need to decide on a J West or cable setup. Anyone have pics of the J west system from the firewall to the tranny?

The JWest linkage will give you less room than stock and travels along the same path as the original, so I don't think it will do you any good.

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?showtopic=70331

You make your own shift rod using the one supplied by James. On my car, it's a straight line from the firewall coupler to the sideshift console coupler.

You can make the rod any shape, as long as both ends are in the same plane ...
Andy

The "bend" in the stock linkage hits the pan so no 4-5 gears. it hits the If I bend the rod to clear the pan, it hits the header so no 1-R gears. I have a window of 1.5 inches to get between. I'm thinking of U-joints, bearings and strait rod. If I can make the rod spin instead of swinging, it would shift fine.

There lies my other problem. The Renegade kit lowers the tranny 1 inch and moves it back 1.25 inches. Not on the same plain anymore. I'm going to need to offset the rod and use 3 or4 U-joints with a carrier bearing in the middle, maybe on the engine cradle. I no longer have a strait shot. The road race pan kicks out 3 inches on both sides of the pan.

The JWest kit comes with U-joints on both ends. Moving the tranny around does not matter. Like i said above, as long as you get both ends in the same plane, you're good.
The same plane on the movable end of the u-joints that is.

If you can point each end of the u-joints at each other and there's nothing in-between that line, you got a straight shot, meaning both ends are in the same plane.

Plane as in 3D, not 2D.
Andy

PS: See pics in my thread linked above ...

Here's my view from the rear.

Click to view attachment

No way that is going to work ...


Either go to a cable shifter setup or customize your oil pan and cut off a few inches on that side to get more clearance ...

Andy

My solution to a similar problem - I have 0 room to run a conventional linkage.
Dog-leg goes around obstructing framework and suspension. It's still in mock-up stage, but as long as I can get the parts connected securely, I see no reason why it won't work!



The far end of the dog-leg linkage is a mirror image of the trans end - in fact I used a long solid rod to align the two end bushings for welding. U-joints at both ends naturally. Biggest problem now is figuring a way to seal it all up while still allowing flexibility. Another "project" waiting its turn....

Jeff

I really don't want to cut the pan. It is baffled and has trap doors to send the oil to the pickup. Either option, cable or multiple u-joints isn't cheap. Cable would be easyest. I think I could fab something to work. The car don't move now so I have to do something...

Looks cool but I already have clearance issues and don't want the linkage below the cradle. I did consider this though and it would work for me. I'm just too afraid of breaking it on something and being stuck somewhere.

A plane is by definition 2D.

put a standard oil pan on it - most straight forward solution.

No. I just took one off.

But it is oriented in 3D space. Thus you need 3 vectors to define a plane in 3D space. The 3rd being the plane normal. Or use a triangle to define the plane.

My post was trying to clarify that you don't have to have the rod mount on the transmission and the firewall at the same height as long as the two u-joint ends point at each other (being on the same plane) you're OK.
That plane can be rotated any way in 3D space. All you need is a clear shot between the two.


With his current setup, that's not the case. I'd say go cable shifter. I just saw a picture of a cable-shift setup on a 901 in another thread here ...
Andy

How about moving the exhaust outboard?

Eddie

Right now it has a complete Renegade exhaust. I could change it if I want to re-do the entire system. I'm thinking of making it shift and move. I like the exhaust for now.

My motor motor was built for a circle track car and came in the crate with the same oil pan. I was able to reshape my shift rod to work, you can see the bend that goes around the renegade adapter. I had shorty headers. I eventually took the pan off and replaced with a stock baffled pan. My final shift rod used a 360 degree rotational end, combined with a Renshift made for a nice shifting car.