I just replaced my 6 speeds control socket. I have Dweebs short shifter and I put the new anti-rattle parts in.
The issue is... now the gears have no gates!!!

I can put it in first and the stick will go left and right without any resistance.
WTF???

Anybody know what the deal is?

All I did was take the shifter out, replace the control socket, put it back together, and now its messed up.

I have not driven it yet. When I went to back it out of the garage I immediately noticed it.

Please give some insight if you know anything about what could cause this.

Thank's
Judge

 

i have the same problem. put it in this afternoon. i can move the stick 3" left or right while in gear. also, i can no longer get into 5th or 6th, even with the plate all the way to the right.

help!?!?!?!

 

oh, by the way...

the new socket and bushings completely solved the noise problems. thank goodness for that.

 

have you guys contacted Dweeb?

 

Not yet.
I just drove the car. Now I seem to have the same missing 5th and 6th gears BigDaddy has.
I have no idea how this could possibly happen.
Pull the retaining bolt out, put it back in and its f'd.

Gonna write to Dweb now.

 

Ok... I figured it out.
Dweeb made a new bushing and sleeve for the retaining bolt. The problem was the new sleeve was too long and thin. Which made the new bushing too thick. Which allowed A LOT of extra travel in the shifter when in gear from apparent smashing of the bushing.
So... BigDaddy.... put the old sleeve and bushing back in and you will be all good.
I will send Dweeb this link to help him out with his design.

On a side note... maybe a thicker sleeve and thinner bushing will make the gates even more narrow. I think that effect would make the shifter feel even less sloppy and more precise.
Any ideas about this??

Judge

 

Just wanted to share a very nice find with you all.
Along the lines of a thicker sleeve and thinner bushing to increase shifter stability when in gear.....
I managed to stuff the thick azz new bushing from Dweeb and the original (thicker then Dweebs replacement) sleeve into the Q-Shifter retainer.
The result was an amazing improvement in shifter feel. Now... after the very short throw into each gear... the shifter has a VERY solid, no slop from side to side, action. Or lack there of in this case.

The ordeal took an incredible amount of patience because the bushing simply did not want to compress.

I ended up making the new solid piece bushing like the original setup. I cut approximately 30% out of the bushing middle and put them on the sleeve with a washer inbetween the two. The result was exactly like the original design but with thicker bushing ends and a rubber washer about three times thicker/heavier than the original.

After much patience I managed to stuff the new piece into the short shifter. Then I wrapped the retaining bolt with pipe thread tape and bolted it all up.

As a side note.... I also placed a thin plastic layer from a milk carton underneath the shifter spring to reduce rattle from that spot.

All said and done.. There is NO rattle from the shifter and it feels like a new high precision gearbox.

Judge

 

Guys, I will be back home tonight. Will respond to all email at taht time.

Dweeb

 

judge,

thanks for keeping us up to date on this. i will try what you suggested tonight, unless dweeb has another approach to suggest.

sean

 

After driving the car more than just around the block I've noticed a disadvantage to the tightly packed bushing.
There is more effort required to go into gears now. It seems to have increased since last night. Probably because the grease may have found it's way off the sight areas. Or it may be the pipe thread tape is getting gummy.
It's a tough decision whether to keep the firm gearbox feel or go back to the previous bushing.
Maybe somebody knows how to make a really thick sleeve with a super firm and thin bushing to get the same effect. Without stuffing the bushing into the retainer it should free up the binding action and allow the shifter throws to move more freely.

The resistance isn't all that bad though. I will probably continue to drive it the way it is and see if it continues to settle in.

Judge

 

Dweeb, I know you aren't home yet, but when you investigate this please keep us up to date.

I have a new control socket and bushing (from you) sitting on my desk. I would like to know if this bushing will be a problem.

Also, my socket has only one oring around the outside. Shouldn't there be 2? If so, can I just get any ole O-Ring from a hardware store and snap it on?

Thanks in advance.

 

Ahhhh….
Just got home and … anyway, if you have problems going into 5th & 6th , just file down a bit of the little **** that prevents you from going into reverse. On some cars here is issues with it (the golden triangle guide on the tranny) that it prevents you from going into gear 5&6. I had to do that on mine also, but on others it works fine stock.

AndyB
As for the “O” ring, there should be 2 rings on the socket. You can buy another in a hardware store (but I will mail you new ones tonight - normal mail), but one will do. I found there was no difference between 1 or 2 “O”rings. I put the 2nd one there just to make sure.

The sleeve was made long on purpose. Like that it allows the shifter/bushings to have more free play and NOT absorb the harmonic vibrations coming from the engine/tranny at certain RPMs. (that’s what causes the noise issue)
You may try to put a bit of the old bushing there like suggested above (just make a rubber/plastic washer out of the original bushing) and put it on one side of the new bushing, like that it will be tighter and give you more of a gated feel. Or you can always sand down the metal insert (make it shorter) that will do the same thing as putting it in a rubber/plastic spacer.

Bigdaddy
I am glad it solved the problem for ya…

Now my better half is almost finished with my dinner ( a nice juicy steak ) so I got to go…

I will be back later on tonight to finish this.

Dweeb

 

guys,

last night i replaced the bushings and sleeve with the original stock bushing and sleeve, therefore utilizing the stiffer bushing and larger sleeve. the shifter feels perfect. i left the new control socket, with 2 o-rings, installed. this appears to have solved the noise problem. in other words, it appears the noise problem had more to do with the control socket than the bushings and sleeve. the shifter is very tight, no play whatsoever when in gear. the gates are very defined and shift effort did not increase at all from before, although it is still slighty more than stock. it is finally as i had hoped. feels great, good throws, no noise.

dweeb, thanks for working so hard on this project. no product can be truly great without a little tinkering, right?

sean

 

judge...thanks to you too for playing around with it and keeping us all updated with suggestions.

 

No problem.
As an update, my shifter has lost some of it's throw resisitance. It's breaking in nicely.
My finger tips were pretty sore from talking that fat yellow bushing into going through the retainer on the stock sleeve but it was worth it.
The shifter did start to have a very light rattle at highway speed however. I wrapped the threads for the shifter **** with pipe tape, put the metal ring on and screwed the **** back on to seat the ring, then took the **** off and wrapped the ring with tape also. Good and thick.
Finally.. no noise.

Steven