Good morning. I have a couple side shift or shift rods, say that five times fast, and I want to make sure I’m selecting the right ones to hold onto as well as making sure that any I may sell are good ones.

I believe that the only part on these that wears, not talking about the coupler just the shift rod, is the rear part of the rod where it passes through the shifter Consol that attaches to the transmission.

I believe there should not be any taper or wear/grooves there, but wanted to make sure I’m thinking about this the right way. Grooves would, obviously, be a easy to spot a problem but not sure how tight the dimensions are. I suppose I could also take a new bushing and just see how snug that fits on the shaft.

Thanks!

@Tdskip

I don't have the spec's but I have two side shift, linkage rods with the coupler. Once is heavily worn & tapered and was sloppy shifting when I briefly drove the car before starting the everlasting rust repair job. The other linkage appears to be much better shape.

14.9mm is the diameter of the linkage that I have that doesn't have taper & wear.

I don't have a bushing handy right now. I do like the looks of the bronze bushing Rich is selling but haven't tried it vs. the OEM plastic which is what I used in the past without issue. Obviously the plastic OEM version needs to be replaced from time to time.

just wondering about the bronze or any solid bushing, is it better to use the plastic so it is just the plastic that will brake instead of the rod being rub hard and make it smaller in diameter? ooops long sentence.

Generally speaking - probably. Easy to replace a plastic bushing. Not so easy to fix the linkage rod once it has been worn over time. However, given that many of these cars won't even see 5,000 miles per year it's not such a big deal.

Here is what a 400,000 mile shift rod looks like.

Click to view attachment

It is out of Betty's car. It has worn off on the bottom in multiple places. I am going to replace the end, but I still have to figure out how to drill the tapered hole for the cone screw.

You can see the wear near the end of the rod. 5th pulls the rod forward, and a lot of that wear is from running down the highway in 5th.

@ClayPerrine

I can make you a single edge cutter out of hardened drill rod if you have a drill press or access to a vertical mill that that you can run at a couple hundred RPM's and aren't in need of it immediately.

It has been over 6 months, and that shift rod is still on the car. I am going to have to do something soon, Betty is complaining about touching reverse when she downshifts into second.

How much would you charge me?

@ClayPerrine

Standard going rate for another member of the cult that is trying to keep a car on the road. -- Free--

I ran out of Argon last night with no way to get more until Monday. I'd dead in the water with respect to welding today. I'll see what I can gin up today. It really shouldn't be that hard. As long as you didn't need it in a week or somthing crazy.

Thanks. Take your time with this. I appreciate it.

Clay

Check the detent plate and lever. You should'nt be able to get past the springs by simply pushing the lever forward.

@ClayPerrine

Decided to do this today. I will have my wife drop this in the mail for you this week. PM me with desired shipping address

Here's a quick video of the cutting tool in action and the directions in the video on how I cut the taper into a piece of mild steel rod.

Note: This is run at slow speed (~ 200 RPM) which you'll see in the video and with cutting oil. Very slow feed rate and clear the chips often. Disregard the reference to this being the 2nd video. The 1st was just a video of starting the hole which seemed useless to me after I had recorded this video. No one wants to watch a bunch of slow cutting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7bqnAdbKbw


Sorry for the wobble. No fancy tripod and I might have had a few.

Tool was created using a universal cutter grinder. Sorry for LowRes & blury photo. I was hurrying too much and just snapped it quickly and didn't review it at the time

Click to view attachment

Super cool turn of events gentlemen, excellent.

Will check that area specific for wear.

Thanks all.

Running 2 bronze (oilite ) rear bushes,these bearing are slightly over size,if I remember it is 0.5mm..not hard to clearance that.
Click to view attachment
The stock plastic bush really is a poor fit because it is made that way to fit the shift console and is rather sloppy otherwise you wouldn't get it in .
These bronze bush's are an excellent choice for better shifting combined with the Tangerine racing bulkhead bush all is MUCH improved and way less "lost motion" in the system.
Go for it Noel

The stock type bushing is only $2.99
Made these to bring the costs down.
Simple fix too.

Time = money

Just buy the Tangerine Racing kit and you'll be very happy

It literally can be replaced in 20 min including jacking up the car