Metal shifter bushings

[Lennym1984]

Hi

I realise that I am in the minority here but I like the 5 spd 986 gearbox and I even think that the throw is reasonable. 

What I would like to do is to remove some of the sideways slop in the mechanism. 

There used to be a metal bearing kit available for just this purpose but I think it has now gone out of production 

Does anybody know if I could steal the bits I need from one of those eBay short shift kits but still keep the throw (and everything else) the same? 

[edc]

Ask @jimk04 What you suggest should work as they are a straight swap in after you cut out the original nylon ones. However, pull up the shifter boot and looks at the way the mechanism works. I think the side to side movement is more affected by the hollowed out rectangular piece and how tight/close the metal ball is in inside. That's why Jim's kit comes with some shims. 

[jimk04]

Hi guys. Yes what ed says is correct in that the sideways movement can be shimmed. If you look inside it should make sense. A razor blade is a good thickness of shim, albeit a little sharp. Some are worse than others so you may need to trial for perfect thickness required.  I think my shim steel was 5 thou. 

[Lennym1984]

Thanks both. I'll have a play with it

[jonogt6]

I've done exactly what your planning on doing. I bought a short shift from ebay for £35 and just used the bushes fitted on to the original shifter.  Then bought some 0.002" steel shim for the princely sum of £1.95 to reduce the movement in the rectangular block. Clean the inner faces of the  block with something like cellulose thinner to make sure it's perfectly clean. Trim the shim to size and apply with strong double sided tape. 

It's definitely worthwhile doing it, but it's unlikely you'll eliminate all the play due to possible cable stretch. 

Good luck Jon

[edc]

I'm not sure how significant cable "stretch" is. Have you seen these cables as I'll be damned if they will stretch during a gearshift. You would snap the lever or break a plastic cup before that happened. What can happen though is that the plastic cup fittings can become a fraction baggy. You have these fittings at both ends of the cable. On the gearbox end they can get cruddy so worth a clean up and grease up. I had new cables on my car and couldn't really tell the difference between that and my previous car which had 58k when I bought it on its original cable pack. 

[Lennym1984]

3 hours ago, jonogt6 said:

I've done exactly what your planning on doing. I bought a short shift from ebay for £35 and just used the bushes fitted on to the original shifter.  Then bought some 0.002" steel shim for the princely sum of £1.95 to reduce the movement in the rectangular block. Clean the inner faces of the  block with something like cellulose thinner to make sure it's perfectly clean. Trim the shim to size and apply with strong double sided tape. 

It's definitely worthwhile doing it, but it's unlikely you'll eliminate all the play due to possible cable stretch. 

Good luck Jon

Perfect - thanks

[jonogt6]

21 hours ago, edc said:

I'm not sure how significant cable "stretch" is. Have you seen these cables as I'll be damned if they will stretch during a gearshift. You would snap the lever or break a plastic cup before that happened. What can happen though is that the plastic cup fittings can become a fraction baggy. You have these fittings at both ends of the cable. On the gearbox end they can get cruddy so worth a clean up and grease up. I had new cables on my car and couldn't really tell the difference between that and my previous car which had 58k when I bought it on its original cable pack. 

I definitely seen them. I installed a new set not so long ago. The new set were approximately 4mm shorter in length and definitely removed some of the free play.