fiestaturbo.com

[heeman10]

In case people had forgotten, I've been having slow gearchange problems since I got the car. I saw other people flicking back from first to second and third to fourth, but mine's been stubborn through all the gears since I got the car four years ago, which I put down to a lazy diesel gearbox. Since I've had three gearboxes and three engines in the car now, with no change to the feel, I realised it was the linkage!

I rebuilt it with new plungers and return springs (they send the lever back to neutral for you) a couple of weeks ago, but it was still a slow shift, and notchy going into third gear. My gearbox is brand new so it shouldn't be that.

Last week and early this week I ordered new parts to do it all again, but a complete overhaul of every part bar the reaction rod that bolts solidly to the gearbox, and part of the assembly that bolts onto the car under the console.

The four parts along the top of this picture are brand new (gear lever [£48!], lower cup, upper plate and shift rod):


Here they are shown again with the old linkage beside them:


Old parts all swapped for new parts and re-greased:


Linkage bolted back together:


My home-made insulator gasket I made last time, plus rubber grommets to ease vibrations sent through the floor:


And the whole lot in one piece:


It's bolted back into the centre of the cabin now, but I've left the two rods off because I'll be changing the gearbox cradle and mounts tomorrow. Couldn't change the lower arms as I can't find my locking wheel nut key! I'll report back on the success/failure of this rebuild. I'd advise anyone who feels strongly enough about the feel of their gearshift to buy a Quickshift, as the parts for the rebuild in this thread add up to over 125 pounds The linkage assembly was available from Ford till earlier this year for about 80 quid!

[Captain Tightpants]

See what you mean, a whole NEW thread!!

Nice work man, I reckon it'll be slick!

Steve

[heeman10]

Thanks for the reply Here's hoping it will be! A 6.6 would make me happy at Trax...

[Captain Tightpants]

Shall I bring the Facom socket set?! We can unbolt everything and chuck it in the Ka while you go off for a 0-60 run!

Steve

[heeman10]

lol Can't be arsed. I "stripped it out" by unloading my fridge, jackets, holdall etc into Rhinopower's Escort last time. That's as bothered as I can be with the shoddy timing equipment there! I'd have more luck bribing the guy who sits under the bridge, guessing when the car looks like it's doing sixty to press the Stop button

[Ollybee]

A 6.6 would make me happy at Trax...

After the work you have put in I would be hoping for better than that! Practise makes perfect!

[heeman10]

Welll who knows? Will see what it does, just a shame the times on Silverstone's 0-60 strip vary so widely in accuracy I might get a 2.2, who knows? Will fit the lower arms and have nice even camber up front, if I can find my locking wheel nut key New tyres are out of the question now, too much to do. I'll do my bestest!

[xrsi]

when we were watching the cars at ford fair apparently most didnt even get to 60!!!

[BUTRE]

heeman, I'm also on the quest of the best way to make the FRST shift faster...

I've replaced the springs and the plastic pads and the result was just a little better precision when shifting.





I'm also going to replace the lever that has the thread for the knob because after cleaning it I was able to see the gap that is has because its wear down.

The problem: I've driven a FRST trackcar with all brand new linkage and its bad. I mean bad because its worse than the clio mk1.
PM'ed Paul R since he had B&M quick shift on his previous FRST and it seems that this quick shift is also poo since the lever is too small and it works too hard the shifting.

I have some ideas in mind and when done, I'll post the results.

[heeman10]

I've been in a 90,000 mileish (I think) 1.6 XR2i and that could just flick at the speed of light between first and second, let alone third and fourth, so it's obviously doable, and that was all utterly standard and not particularly well-maintained either I don't think! If it's not good after this lot, I will be very annoyed!! The springs and plungers should mean you can jump from second to third more quickly, and back from fifth to fourth. I think the two things slowing down the actual speed of the shift were the lower casing (the big pot full of butter in your pic ) and the shifter rod itself. The lower cup was worn and full of crud, and the shifter rod had all stiffened up in the joints near the gearbox. Will see what it's done by about Wednesday next week hopefully Let me know how you get on too.

[~Tony~]

interested in the outcome of this. was considering getting a quickshift on mine not sure if it was worth it though.



mine still goes in and out of gear nicely atm and thats still the original one

[rsboy82]

hi mate can i ask a quick question please
ive fitted a b&m short shift to mine but i wasnt sure if i still needed the springs that are in the white bits of plastic will it make any difference?
also dude how do u alter the gear linkage cause mine is way off its really hard to get in gear and also sticks in 5th when changin down it feels as if its been fitted to much to the left
ive recently had a box fitted so thats why everything is out of line
oh 1 last thing since i had the quickshift fitted the car vibrates loads on idle and over 5k revs any ideas?
cheers fella

[heeman10]

Tony - I can't remember how much B&M's Quickshift is, but remember all this lot as cost me something like 140 pounds, so it may be a close-run thing. I wouldn't mind a slightly "closer" feel to the shift, which the B&M kit would give, but I think it might be a bit too close and I'd run the risk of missing gears. Cutting down the OE lever has been a good compromise for me anyway.

rsboy82 - I don't know exactly what you get with the Quickshift kit, but I don't see why you wouldn't still need the return springs, unless B&M somehow built a return device into their linkage The white bits of plastic (plungers) wouldn't be doing anything if the springs weren't in them!

Gear linkage alignment

I find the Haynes way of aligning the linkage works well. Slacken off the pinch bolt and slide the collar off the gearbox shift shaft. Stick a screwdriver shaft or allen key in the shift shaft and find the "neutral plane" by pushing it forward, pulling it back (in and out of the gearbox, there will be about 15mm movement in each direction) then finding the centre point, which is the neutral plane (ie this is the point when your gear lever is central and you can waggle the gear lever from side to side). It will help if you turn one of the wheels a little bit, backwards and forwards, while you do this.

Now you've found that plane, you need to find the centre of that plane. so now, with your screwdriver/allen key still in the hole in the shift shaft, rotate it from left to right (ie replicating moving the gear lever from side to side. We're going for fourth gear, so you want the centre in this plane now). You'll need to go left-right a few times to get a feel for the distance it spans, then find the centre. When you've got it, you will be able to push the shaft forward towards the front of the car (wiggle the car wheel again if need be). When it's full home, that is fourth gear.

The final stage is making sure the gear lever's in the right place relative to the linkage. At this stage you need someone in the car. Slide the shift rod collar onto the shift shaft, don't tighten the pinch bolt just yet. Get the person in the car to find what feels like a good fourth gear position (they will no doubt wiggle around to much and pull the collar off). Once they've got it, tighten the collar onto the shift shaft. Get out from under the car and see how it all feels. If it's ok, job done. If not, try the gear lever alignment process again, or think through it logically (ie if the gear lever is too far back for fourth gear, you will need to slide the collar forwards a tiny amount on the shaft).

That's the lot. If you're on your own, it's possible to do it but using neutral as the "gear" you align the shift shaft to, rather than fourth. Provided you're careful when you find the centre of the two planes, and feel (from the shift rod coming from the linkage) when the gear lever is sitting in the neutral position, this way can be just as successful and only requires one person.

[rsboy82]

interested in the outcome of this. was considering getting a quickshift on mine not sure if it was worth it though.



mine still goes in and out of gear nicely atm and thats still the original one

hi tony ive recently purchased a B&M quickshift and its quality cost me £165 from a trader on passionford.com his user name is christianbecky i can get the link for if you like! if you look below u can see the kit!
i hope this will be of help

[rsboy82]

Tony - I can't remember how much B&M's Quickshift is, but remember all this lot as cost me something like 140 pounds, so it may be a close-run thing. I wouldn't mind a slightly "closer" feel to the shift, which the B&M kit would give, but I think it might be a bit too close and I'd run the risk of missing gears. Cutting down the OE lever has been a good compromise for me anyway.

rsboy82 - I don't know exactly what you get with the Quickshift kit, but I don't see why you wouldn't still need the return springs, unless B&M somehow built a return device into their linkage The white bits of plastic (plungers) wouldn't be doing anything if the springs weren't in them!

Gear linkage alignment



I find the Haynes way of aligning the linkage works well. Slacken off the pinch bolt and slide the collar off the gearbox shift shaft. Stick a screwdriver shaft or allen key in the shift shaft and find the "neutral plane" by pushing it forward, pulling it back (in and out of the gearbox, there will be about 15mm movement in each direction) then finding the centre point, which is the neutral plane (ie this is the point when your gear lever is central and you can waggle the gear lever from side to side). It will help if you turn one of the wheels a little bit, backwards and forwards, while you do this.

Now you've found that plane, you need to find the centre of that plane. so now, with your screwdriver/allen key still in the hole in the shift shaft, rotate it from left to right (ie replicating moving the gear lever from side to side. We're going for fourth gear, so you want the centre in this plane now). You'll need to go left-right a few times to get a feel for the distance it spans, then find the centre. When you've got it, you will be able to push the shaft forward towards the front of the car (wiggle the car wheel again if need be). When it's full home, that is fourth gear.

The final stage is making sure the gear lever's in the right place relative to the linkage. At this stage you need someone in the car. Slide the shift rod collar onto the shift shaft, don't tighten the pinch bolt just yet. Get the person in the car to find what feels like a good fourth gear position (they will no doubt wiggle around to much and pull the collar off). Once they've got it, tighten the collar onto the shift shaft. Get out from under the car and see how it all feels. If it's ok, job done. If not, try the gear lever alignment process again, or think through it logically (ie if the gear lever is too far back for fourth gear, you will need to slide the collar forwards a tiny amount on the shaft).

That's the lot. If you're on your own, it's possible to do it but using neutral as the "gear" you align the shift shaft to, rather than fourth. Provided you're careful when you find the centre of the two planes, and feel (from the shift rod coming from the linkage) when the gear lever is sitting in the neutral position, this way can be just as successful and only requires one person.

cheers dude u always have the right answers

[heeman10]

What's the bottom end of that shaft meant to operate with? The standard shifter rod has a ring that the standard gear lever ball slots into...is there some sort of fitting supplied that goes on the end of your lever? I'd really like to try one of those out to see what the difference is.

I just remembered you said you were getting vibrations through the linkage. You need to insulate the linkage from the chassis with rubber doughnuts/grommets/spacers of some form. I included pics of the grommets I used at the top of the thread, though I'm not sure they're thick enough, possibly not.

[Xr_Dub]

i changed mine the other day got brand new 1ns from ford.. the xr2i and frst 1ns are the same..55 each..

got my tracking done after.. it feels so much better with that done the strut braces and 8s and 9s @ the back are working wonders.... i recommend every 1 changing it when theres are nackerd or @ least upgrading to ian howels ones might do that next year....

p.s i was talking about lower arms and i posted it on the wrong section

[rsboy82]

What's the bottom end of that shaft meant to operate with? The standard shifter rod has a ring that the standard gear lever ball slots into...is there some sort of fitting supplied that goes on the end of your lever? I'd really like to try one of those out to see what the difference is.

I just remembered you said you were getting vibrations through the linkage. You need to insulate the linkage from the chassis with rubber doughnuts/grommets/spacers of some form. I included pics of the grommets I used at the top of the thread, though I'm not sure they're thick enough, possibly not.

alright mate everything comes with it it only took me mate 30 mins to do it but i just need to get sum rubber gromets from sum where any ideas where dude? if u want the link dude let me know!

[CRF]

but remember all this lot as cost me something like 140 pounds

Ouch!

My whole linkage only cost about 110 from Ford!