Stainless Steel Gear Shift Cables
Stainless Steel Gear Shift Cables
Fitting Guide
The job is fairly straight forward and follows the manual for the most part and is easier with two people when removing and replacing the cables through the tunnel.
When removing the old cables tie a piece of string or similar on the end before you remove them this makes the job easier when you come to install the new cables as you have something on the end to help guide them.
Having removed the cables from the gear lever there is one job to do before installing the new ones.
On the cross gate lever is a 6mm pin this needs to be removed as it is replaced with a bolt.
To remove it support the lever with a socket and hit the top of the pin with a hammer, it should come out easily as it is only held by three small spot welds.
The cable outer is now held in place with a cir clip which will retain the parts better than the E clip or wire clip and will be a lot stronger as it’s rated for 750kg.
The two cables are different lengths and are marked the longer one is the cross gate and the shorter the fore/aft cable it is very important to ensure they are fitted to the correct lever.
Also one of the M8 rod ends has the two flats machined off, this one needs to be on the cross gate other wise it could foul on the gearbox selector shaft.
It is as well to fit these before you install the cables in the tunnel as it helps identify them.
When installing the new cables it is important to ensure you retain enough travel on the lever, the cross gate is not that difficult as the cable has more travel than the lever so as long as you have full travel and some to spare in the cable in either direction it will be fine.
The fore/aft cable is a little more tricky as there is more travel on the lever than the cable, you need to ensure that when the cable is central and forward (3rd gear) there is about 10mm gap under the lever between it and the captive nut.
Do not try to have it all the way forward as there is motion on the fore/aft lever that is not used more so back than forward so do not expect to get full travel.
Note: do not be tempted to set them with the leave right back in 2nd, 4th or reverse.
There are misalignment spacers fitted to all but the cross gate on the gear lever end and these are needed to ensure there is enough movement in the rod ends, the rod ends them selves have more movement than is really needed at 26 degrees as the cables them selves can only move 16 degrees in total.
Once you are happy with the lever position the locking nuts can be tightened.
With the aid of either a piece of wire or a cable tie secure the gear lever in the position it would be in if 5th gear was selected, this makes getting the cables though the tunnel a lot easier.
Remove gear shift bracket on the gear box even the later S2 style one as it gives more room to get the cables through the bulkhead.
Threading the cables back through can be a bit tricky and the string will now become obvious as does having two people one pushing, one pulling, and both “jiggling it a bit” as you do so, so to speak.
Once the cables are through the bulkhead and are roughly in position fit the bracket to the gearbox.
The cables can then be fitted to the bracket making sure you slot the correct one into the correct hole on the bracket and ensure they are not twisted between the lever and the bracket.
To slot them in place you will need to pull the rubber seal back on the rod guide and remove one of the nuts and a washer so that the cable can be pushed back to allow the cable to enter the slot.
You can now fit the second washer, nut and seal, hand tight on the nuts at this point as they will need to be adjusted.
Remove the original pins from both gearbox levers, with Dave’s short shift only one can be removed as the other is welded in. You can now fit the rod ends to the levers with the misalignment spacers and the special washers with the square on them.
Once you have every thing in place it is time to adjust it all which is as per the manual.
Check you can get all the gears but do not be surprised if you cannot get reverse as it is a non sycro gear and some times needs things to be turning to engage.
As a final check ensure you have at least 2 to 3mm or so of rod showing after the thread on the cable rod when the lever is in third gear.
There is a bit to play with as the travel on the gear box is less than the travel on the cables about 12mm on the fore/aft cable and 19mm on the cross gate.
This is to ensure the cables do not bottom out in side the outer.
Once happy the gearbox end can be locked in place, the two 24mm nuts can be difficult to tighten as there is not a lot of room and in an ideal world a crows foot spanner would be the ideal tool but an double open end spanner should work as they are shorter than the standard combination ring and open end. Note: A crow’s foot spanner can be made up from an old 24mm open ended spanner and an old 3/8” socket, cut the spanner and weld the socket on or you could use a shortened 24mm open ended spanner.
Now off for a test drive and see if you can feel the difference.
