Feeling pretty pleased with myself! WEVO shift coupler, Sunday projects.

[josephvman]

I got my Targa back this week from the bodyshop, who sorted out the chewed up trunk latch panel and did a minor refresh of the front bumper, hood, and headlight ring area, as well as touching up chips and buffing and polishing. I'm really pleased with way it turned out and the hood fits perfectly now.

Today my project was to install the WEVO shift coupler and MOMO Prototipo. Put the gearbox in 2nd, and opened up the rear panel. Things were pretty straightforward, and I thought I marked the orientation of the shifter rod correctly before I removed the old one. When I got the WEVO coupler installed and apparently lined up correctly with my marks, I noticed that the front part of the couple wasn't seated very far into the gear lever rod. I lightly tightened things up and the shift lever was way off, finding reverse where 3rd was, and the front/rear orientation was also way off. I resisted the urge to panic, shifted into reverse, and loosened it up. I sat in the drivers seat and did a little trial and error after putting the coupler end deeper into the shifter rod. As I'd read in some of the threads, very minor movement at the coupler end has a dramatic effect on where the lever ends up. I put the car in reverse, and held the lever far right in the gate while moving the coupler in the opposite direction, and managed to get it tightened up. That was apparently the trick, because unbelievably the shift lever was centered and after a cold run of shifting through the gears, 1-4 where where I'd expect to find them, and pushing right past the light tension I found 5th and reverse. Of course things were pretty notchy without the car running under load, but I was comfortable that this was good. I tightened it up a bit more, started the car, and found all the gears. Time to drive! The first thing I noticed was my lever was now a littler more forward that it was, which corrected my annoyance before being so close to my seat while in 2nd. There was a bit more shift effort but the feel was 100% improved. No popping out of gear, grinding, or strange noises (not that I had any of that before). Much better downshifts from 5 to 4 and 4 to 3. I like the feel of overcoming a little resistance to the right for 5th. I think this is a must-do mod for a stock 915 gearbox, and if I can do it anyone can.

Feeling optimistic,, it was time to tackle the MOMO Prototipo. I had to get a 27mm socket and long 1/2" bar. I was doing this alone and my only concern was whether I'd be able to break the nut loose while trying to hold the steering wheel so I wasn't pressing against the steering lock. Fortunately the nut came loose much easier than I expected, and the wheel pulled off the splines easily without and banging or tugging. I opened the MOMO hub adaptor, and was thrilled to see that the turn signal cancel tab was already on the back. This is going way too easy, and just when I was getting cocky, I slid the adaptor down the column and it was too small. Apparently the splines changed at the '87 model year, so I've got the wrong one. At least it's a 5 minute job from here once I get the new adaptor!

I wasn't ready to do my speakers today, but I stuck my new grills over the old ones to see how they were going to look, and they're much better than I thought. Here's a pic:

[RWebb]

what was the condition of the factory coupler before putting in the wevo?

[josephvman]

Here are a couple of pics. I'm not sure what they look like new, but it has a lot of lateral slop in it. The car has 43k on the clock. The set screw at the back was basically finger tight. It appears that it has been pretty recently greased (it was everywhere and the pics were taken after I cleaned it), which makes sense since I believe the engine was out for the full service and replacement of a lot of oil lines prior to my purchase.

Originally Posted by RWebb

what was the condition of the factory coupler before putting in the wevo?