I am going to replace my shift bushings and I think I remember someone commenting on welding a fitting that is normally held in place with a roll pin?

Also, I am having a little trouble with first gear engagement, it has trouble engaging all the way (have done a little shifter adjustment and it did get better, but 1 out of 5 times it will want to pop out of first gear. Besides clutch adjustment and linkage adjustment what can I do to help the situation?

I have a sideshifter tranny that is fine, as well as a FI 2.0 engine attached to it, but if I can make things better with what is already there I'd like to get some mileage out of it first.

I don't know about welding that fitting, but there's a part of the linkage inside the end cover that's held in place with a roll pin. This will affect all gears, however, not just first gear. It's more likely, assuming your clutch is adjusted correctly, that your first gear dog rings are shot. This is well covered on Red Beard's site, and is very common. It can be repaired with the gearbox in the car, as first gear can be exposed and removed by only taking off the end cover.

All of the internals except for the internal linkage will swap between the tail and side shift gearboxes, so you can either repair your tailshifter using some parts out of your side-shifter 'box, or just swap in the sideshifter now and keep the tailshifter for spares.

OK, I think I know the part you are talking about with the roll pin. The first gear issue may be an adjustment - I will replace the bushings and re-adjust. If that doesn't help the issue I'll probably do an engine/tranny swap, another 20 horsies never hurt anyone.

what can happen is the roll pin doesn't shear cleanly but bends and the arm rotates a bit on the shaft. this can make 1,3,5 difficult. due to the direction of rotation, r,2,4 can still be engaged. you can adjust things and the lower portion of the pattern keeps going away. very frustrating. welding instead of the pin is pretty hard to undo. you would need the pin for the correct placement of the arm anyway.

k

Hmm, ok - so welding will give me a one time fix and no change of adjustment later.

what i mean is, if you use the proper TRIPLE rolled pin that has lasted who knows how long, welding is sort of redundant. when bushing go bad, and the linkage adjustment is out of wack, people use force to put the car in gear. pound on first long enough and the weakest piece calls it quits. do the pin, put the cover plate on, put some gear lube in it, adj the linkage, and see if it makes any improvement. then decide on welding. just mh(umble)o.

k

On a tail shift, many people weld the external shift rod near where the roll pin is, since this is a place of major slop.

i hope the way i'm phrasing things isn't adding some confusion. james, refering to the exploded diagram on p. 86, fig 5.21, of haynes. do you mean that part #14 (shift lever) is welded to #12 (shift lever ) inside of the rear cover? for the record, the triple rolled pin is part #11 (lock pin). i should think #'s 15&16 are in servicable condition before committing to welding.

k

No, I'm talking about the external shift rod, past the bushing, where the "finger" conncts to the rod which goes into the tail cover.

On my 914/6, this was brazed after installation, which required grinding to remove it. I don't have the linkage set up any more, or I'd show you what I'm talking about.

got it. that would be the fingered end of #46 on p90 fig 5.28. the 72' had that portion brazed and filed down before i went a side shift. lots of bushings to go south with that setup plus 2 adj points. very complex.

k

Exactly!!