Hi All,
I've complained about the bad design of the linkage on here before, well nows the time to do something about it, the car's really going nowhere if it can't be put in gear!
If you look at the photo you can see that forward & backwards movement presents no problems, when it comes side to side movement being transfered to the rear, its as good as useless, not easy to explain but the "twisting" force doesn't translate very well through those two offset U.J's.
Again not easy to explain, but the best simple solution I can come up with without starting from scratch is to make two uprights, like small levers on the shift rod that comes from the front, make mirror uprights on the gearbox shift, then link the four with a small, stiff rose jointed frame.
Anyone got a better idea?

Have a look at the linkage on the audi transaxle(audi 100, passat old and new), I reckon you could adapt one of those??

mine has a renault 5 speed box. same problems though. will try to get some bloody pictures uploaded asap.

Thanks Tigger,
I'll try & swing by the scrappys tommorrow & see if I can find one to have a look at.

Had a look at the Audi 100 linkage today, it would be good to modify, except it would reverse the gears, ie 1st gear on the right. :(
The prize for "thinking a long way out of the box" goes to the Uruguayan bloke in the scrappy, who, when I explained the gearbox change was right at the back of the car suggested "having someone else at the back to change the gears" :lol: :lol: :wacko: Think that's what I'll do, maybe a child to save wieght. :unsure:

what about a cable system. will be looking into that for mine. might be worth looking at some gt40 kit cars for ideas.
just looked up "gt40 gear linkage" on google. they seem to have the same problems with making a smooth gear linkage to work (cheap)
lots of pictures and ideas for vw / audi boxes as well.
one bloke even says you can use the audi 2.2lt 5cyl auto box. that would suit a rover v8 in an f33.

Does your set up look just the same or similar?
When I first got the car I thought about a cable system, but at the moment I don't want to get involved with compleatly re-doing the whole lot. I think the biggest problem on mine is those two joints at the back, will try someting else there first before anything else. At the moment I'll settle for a crap change rather than none at all!
I'm now planning to use a couple of ball jointed rods & a couple of levers.

Had a look at the GT40 cable shifts you mensioned, first price I found was $750 :o . My idea was to get a cable shift lever & mountings from a scrappy, I can't remember what car now but I know there are some newer cars using cables, then maybe get longer cables from a boat place (morse cables), make levers & anchors for the cables at the back & hey presto, still won't work right :blink: F$%&.
Seriously, it might be the way to go?

no. mine is a renault box. same problem though. crap design. will be looking into it again soon.

could work. porsche and beetle "hockey-sticks" are the same diameter.

http://www.cbperformance.com/catalog.asp?ProductID=703

Thanks for that Rutger, usefull, I'm making something like that (not as pretty!), but simpler as my shift pattern doesn't need reversing.

just looked at my gearbox in daylight for the first time in years and i wonder how i ever managed to get the right gear. been on the net for the last two hours looking at every site about un1 gearboxes and they all seem to have cable systems. most kit-cars are now going for the audi a6 boxes or sticking to the over priced g50 porsche box. as i have the box fitted to the rover engine i might as well just go for the easy option and look for a cable system from a gt40 kit or lambo kit....

I've got the bits together to sort my linkage out, but for many reasons it's on hold again!!
Does the Renault box have the shift at the rear or on the side?

with the box fitted as it was in the renault ( right way up) the lever is on the left side. it does both up-down and in-out on my version. i think i have the older model. it looks like a UN1 but i am sure a UN1 has two levers, mine only has 1. right pain in the ass to sort out a cable set-up......

looking at an mgf gearlever and cable set up now. i just hope the cables are the right length, then i can try to copy the mounting plates from a gtd40 or ultima kit car. just got to find a clear picture of one now..........

any more news? been looking at a lotus with an audi v8 and audi gearbox from an a4 fitted. looks very nice...i think it was in PPC magazine

how is this progressing I would be interested to see your soloutions for this problem do you have any pictures, diagrams of what you propose to do or doing ?

best of luck

many thanks

this is one system i have found...but his gearbox has two input shafts....mine only has one.

Bailey,

Other cars with a useful cable shift setup are the MK1 MR2 and I think the MK2 aswell. Also a corrado has one I believe, all of these shoufl be lanuishing in scrappys all over the place now!!
My friend used to race a Sports 2000 which had the hewland box based on the VW and his linkage was via shift rods and UJ's not cables and was pretty good. I'll see if I can dig out any pics and send them across to you. Last thing you need is to be stuck in one shift plane or fumbling changes......

here is another link for gearbox shifter ideas......:http://www.lambolounge.com/Chassis/Transmission/Audi-shifter/Audi-Shifter.asp