Short shift - who'd have thunk it?!

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Turbo-Brown
Boost Junkie
Posts: 4705
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hants

Post Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:23 pm

Having gone as far with rebuilding my engine as I can today, I turned my attentions to making a short shift for my faithful old brown 325i.

So, had a look at the linkage and thought an easy way to shorten the front-rear motion of the lever would be to increase the distance between the spherical bit and the pivot beneath.

Anyway, I remembered seeing the old gearlever from dad's old Volvo 260 kicking about so I dug it out and, would you believe it, the sphere's exactly 30mm dia like the BMW one and the lower pivot's further away than the BMW one :)

Also, by pure coincidence, the lever's bent to almost exactly the same shape as the BMW one!

The only problem is that it's a bit shorter so I'll need to make up a longer gear-knob, and also I need to make up a tube to adapt the lower pivot to the BMW link.

Other than that, nice, easy and most importantly FREE conversion :)

Happy me.

Alex
Last edited by Turbo-Brown on Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Andy335Touring
Married to the E30 Zone
Married to the E30 Zone
Posts: 7144
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Long Eaton,Nottingham

Post Mon Mar 28, 2005 5:25 pm

Can't beat a free mod 8)
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Geeman
Married to the E30 Zone
Married to the E30 Zone
Posts: 7641
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Grimsby, Lincolnshire

Post Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:03 pm

Excellent!

Just one a mod on mine too, but used the Z3 2.8 lever at a cost of Ԛ£27.50 + VAT... not too bad.
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glenn
Engine Transplant Services
Engine Transplant Services
Posts: 2198
Joined: Sat Jan 29, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: blackwood, south wales

Post Mon Mar 28, 2005 6:54 pm

well done turbo brown,
" i love it when a plan comes together"
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Turbo-Brown
Boost Junkie
Posts: 4705
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 11:00 pm
Location: Aldershot, Hants

Post Mon Mar 28, 2005 8:46 pm

Wahey!

Made up a bronze bush for the lever so that's nice and solid now :)

Also, packed 2oz of lead into the link rod to add a bit more weight to the shift. Feels quite nice at the mo, now all I have to do is get some ali and make up a gear knob.
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