Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: ambergris Nov 15 2004, 07:12 PM

In my quest to clean up the shifting action on my 74 2.0L, I decided to rebuild the tranny. My first time doing something like this, and I thought it turned out pretty well. I think I have a leak at the speedo drive, but the grinds in 2nd and 3rd disappeared. Shifting was pretty good, and I was able to hit all the gears I intended to on my test run at first.
But then the slop came back, and I found myself having a hard time finding 4th and 5th. I was giving the "pot of gears" a lot of stirring to find anything. I assumed I had to fine-tune my shift rod alignment. So I got back home and started playing with the alignment when POP! the shifter came totally loose. I thought I had lost a cone set screw or something, until I looked under the car.
It looks like my shift rod came apart! It looks like there's a tack weld or something that came undone.
So now, I have a couple of questions:
1. Is it possible that this is what was causing my shift slop?
2. Are there any special considerations when getting this fixed? Can I just take the 2 peices to any body shop and ask them to re-weld it? Or this my opportunity to buy a welder and learn a new skill

One step forward and one back again.
Oh, and does anyone know what's going on with the JWest RennShift "Extreme Makeover"? I was looking at maybe getting one once I get this taken care of, and the site has sales suspended.


Attached thumbnail(s)

Posted by: vsg914 Nov 15 2004, 07:15 PM

It's happened to me. The two parts are only tack welded together. Have them rewelded, but make sure it lines up exactly where it was before it broke.

Posted by: ! Nov 15 2004, 07:19 PM

Yup easy fix....once when I was in band camp and it broke...I drilled a hole through it and took a lock nut and bolt to it....got me home and it worked so well, I was too lazy to fix it for three months....

Posted by: 9146986 Nov 15 2004, 08:53 PM

That's why I pretty much weld that up solid when I make the conversion shift rod.

Nice protective coating on the tranny!

It would be no problem to put that back together. I'm sure there are plenty of witness marks to re-align the two parts. Should be a minimum charge at any welding shop. Make sure you put a small dab of low torque Locktite on those cone set screws before you put them back in.

Posted by: ChrisReale Nov 15 2004, 10:30 PM

water resistent!

Posted by: DJsRepS Nov 16 2004, 04:52 AM

You better hope there is not so much protective coating on the clutch side of that rebuilt tranny! Yea just line up the old spot weld and go solid weld all the way

Posted by: DJsRepS Nov 16 2004, 04:57 AM

I havent put my pelican bushing shift kit in yet. My tunel bushings are out and I cant do 4th or 5th but I can still make the speed limit in 3rd around town. NO TIME! Just got the pedal cluster bushing kit and new throddle cable as well all still in the Peclian box.

Posted by: ambergris Nov 16 2004, 11:06 AM

Super cool. Thanks for all the responses, folks. Sounds like I'll just remove the rod and walk it over to my local body shop for re-welding.
Hopefully my next update will include cleaner pics! I feel like I just let a bunch of people in my dirty apartment! I guess in this case, the "apartment" hasn't been cleaned in 30 years, so....

I'm still a little curious as to what improvements James West is planning for his Rennshift...

Posted by: 9146986 Nov 19 2004, 08:07 AM

The oven is a good place to hide dirty dishes

Posted by: ambergris Nov 19 2004, 11:36 AM

Okey dokey. Well, this update is pretty much what people were expecting, but I always like to close up my topics.
As it turns out there's an auto body shop in walking distance of my apartment, so I took the busted shift bar over on my lunch break. I noted the alignment of the 2 peices, and they did a quick weld job (all the way around this time). Solid, baby. Gave the guy 20 bucks and I think we were both happy.

Soooooo nice to be able to shift again! I guess the bar has been broken for a while now, because all the slop that I had been trying to get rid of for months is pretty much gone. I'm guessing that the weld broke, but the pressure fit kept the 2 peices together. Slow shifts worked, but anything faster and the bar rotated, causing a lot of missed shifts.

Thanks to everyone here as always, for the advice and for making fun of my transmission "performance coating" I think I need to buy a couple cans of oven cleaner or something...