I'm guessing there's nothing I can do about this.. but I'm asking anyways!

The cable that moves from the left-right motion of the shifter has more friction than I'd like. It's not a smooth and easy back and forth motion. Even if I straighten out the cable and not connect it to the trans, it still isn't super smooth. Is this just a characteristic of an 8 foot long cable? It's a 1/4" cable from mcmaster-carr, the corrosion restant type. Is there a way I can get oil into it? Would it help?

The shifter I am using has a centering spring on it that should keep it sprung to the 2-3 plane, but it doesn't work at all because of the friction. It worked fine in the Celica it came out of, but the cables were much shorter.

You can put a plastic sandwich bag over one end of the cable and seal it to the cable's jacket with rubber bands so it's open on top, with the end of the cable sticking up a bit into the bag. Hang the cable so it's stretched down and fill the plastic bag with either just oil or (better) a moly-oil mixture to above the end of the open cable. Leave it until you see oil coming out of the bottom end of the cable.

Hmm, interesting technique. What do you mean by "moly-oil mixture"? Do I just put oil and moly grease in a blender? Seems like it would separate over time.

These are new cables, and I would assume they come lubricated.. I'm kind of wondering if the friction is from the viscosity of grease.. maybe if I cleaned them out and went with a thin oil they would be easier to move?

Hows it going ?

I think it the length of the cable for sure. Back in the day, when I worked for Ford, they were having design issues with different length hand brake cables. The longer one was always sticking, and it was never good even new. They added a bigger return spring, and actually mounted it in a place to use the smallest amount af sleeve, and more bare cable.
I am deffinately going cables with my conversion, and always thought that the longer cable might give problems. I am seriously thinking about a hydrolic setup...

What I would try...there a funnythingeedoodad of a tool the the Dirt bikers and 4wheelers use to force oil down thier cables, its too small for your cables but the idea is a good one...I'll try to find a pic...it does not look very hard to make something similar. I would use an "Additive" type oil. The kind of stuff that makes everything super slippery, but not the thick stuff. Wynns, Bardol type of thing.
Good luck and put this one in the fine tuning list of things to do.
Later

Mcmaster has a "low friction" cable, but I don't know how much difference there is. I could try it, but the bend radius isn't as good (5" instead of 3") and the temperature rating is lower. It'd be a $60 experiment. I didn't order the low friction one in the first place because of the above and also because I needed an 8 foot and a 7 foot. The low friction one is only available in even foot increments. It's the 8 foot one that's the problem though, so I could just swap out that one.

(both cables have some resistance, but the side-side one is noticable because it's supposed to be easy and your arm isn't as strong in that direction)

Any more advice from the experts? This cable is teflon lined.. will oil hurt it? help it? Anyone use this type of cable and not have this problem?

I wouldn't oil a teflon coated cable. But I'm no cable shift expert.

I'm not so sure these cables come w/ any lubrication...(doesn't need any) and I think that there might be something wrong with that particular cable. I bought a pair of McMaster-Carr cables and they don't have any friction whatsoever...leading me to think that you might want to order a new one. I never had to lubricate mine. If this is a new cable to begin with, they will probably replace it free of charge. Their customer service is awesome!

Bill

Hmm, but they're both like that. It's not a lot of friction, but it's not totally free either. These particular ones are cablecraft brand. I wonder if there's a spec for what it's supposed to be. That's gotta be tricky to measure though.

Can you just flop your shifter back and forth in the neutral plane with little effort? I have a tendency to do that when I'm waiting for a light to turn green, and I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be annoyed by the extra resistance.

It's from 40 years ago on early British motorcyles, works great. They used parafin, but oil and moly or graphite is better. Just mix in powdered moly or graphite. The oil just works as a carrier, so when the oil eventually dries out the powder is left and the cable stays lubricated. Don't make it into a paste, just stir some in till the oil is dark with the powder. It won't separate.

Oil won't hurt teflon, so no problem there, but if you have new teflon coated cables you shouldn't have any significant friction. Something's wrong. Are both cables the same, or is it just one that's bad?

I have the identical (well 5/16") McMaster-Carr cables in mine. The shift handle most certainly will NOT flop around, so yeah, there is some friction, but nothing I considered an issue. When I was driving the car on the track, I never thought "wow, that is a tough shift". The 930 trans I have is a notchy bastard as it is anyway, so I notice the effort needed to shift it, not the handle...

One thing that will increase the friction is a tight bend radius - funny that the low-friction shows a higher bend radius, that is most likely why. Do you have a tight bend in the cable near the back of the car? I looped mine out a bit to give a larger radius at the rear. A tight radius was noticeable at the shift handle.

If you just notice you can't flop it around in neutral while sitting at the lights, I don't think you would even get that with the low-friction brand. Any guided cable used for "power transmision" just won't work like that. To be that sloppy, you wouldn't be able to "push on a rope", which is technically what you are doing half the time.

I think I'm just being an over sensitive perfectionist. I played with a cable shifter at the G&R swap, and it wasn't that much easier. Looks like it's just a characterisic of a cable shifter with a long cable, and I just need to get used to it. Both cables are about the same, so I doubt it is a defective cable.

BTW, these cables are pretty fat, I wouldn't be surprised if the only difference between the 5/16" and 1/4" cables was the ends.