Tail shifter ball bushings, Are they really balls? Options

[Jaiden]

So while tinkering with the teener I decide to take care of the sloppy shifting and after unhooking the shaft from the tranny noticed alot of slop in the ball bushings.
Upon inspection the bushings look like balls with a flat section all the way around are they supposed to be this way? There is alot of slop in the joint.

Also at the connection between the shaft and the tranny is there supposed to be a bushing in there because I do not have one?

Thanks for the info.

I don't have any pics yet but will try to get some tonight.

[lapuwali]

There needs to be *some* play in the knife-and-fork part, or it won't move (or will be very stiff). Note that the "knife" is tapered, so some clearance will be taken up as it's shifted into gear. If there's still a lot of play after you put it in gear, then you need to break out the brazing tools and a file. You'll just add material until you have no clearance, then file it back until you have a bit of clearance again. Red-beard brazed up the knife, and the rod where is passes through the rearmost bushing, then filed both more or less into shape.

IMHO, in the tail shifter, the points of slop that cause the greatest difference in shifting are the ball cup at the base of the shift lever, followed by the balls. The knife and fork makes much less difference to feel, followed by the firewall bushing, then the guide bushing just aft of the shift lever. Fix the ball cup and the balls, and you get rid of about 80% of the possible slop. I also strongly dislike the Weltmeister short-shifter on the tailshifter setup. It seems to work nicely on the side-shifter, but the tail-shifter only seems to be harmed by the Welt unit.