915 coupler adjustment and "play" in 5th?

rw229 · 04-20-2008, 05:58 PM

My question...

Without play in the coupler when in 5th gear, am I placing excessive stress on my transmission and/or accelerating wear?

Background...

So Saturday was shifter upgrade day. New bushings, factory short shifter and a Seine gate kit. Everything was pretty straight forward, though removing the coupler bushings was a b*tch!

The gate shift is really slick and I don't see how you could ever miss a shift with one installed. The factory short shifter is different. Certainly a shorter throw but notchy. (though this could be attributed to the tightness of the new bushings) I'll have to drive it some more to see if I like it or not. I'm 50/50 right now, the stock shift lever was sooo smooth.

With the gate shift spring backed off all the way, I adjusted the coupler per the tech article here on PP and can select all gears cleanly. There is however NO play at the couple when 5th is engaged. Trying to get some play, I fiddled with not turning turning the coupler as far and not holding the shifter as hard to the left (on the neutral plane), but then the gears were out of adjustment.

Eagledriver · 04-20-2008, 07:22 PM

With my factory shifter I also found no play there. Now that I have a WEVO there is spring tension on the shift rod all the time. I asked Hayden if that was a problem and he said no. Apparently rotational loads on the shift rod don't cause problems inside the transmission. The shift rods are in holes that are in the castings of the case. Rotational force just pushes the rods against the sides of their holes.

-Andy

rw229 · 04-21-2008, 04:52 PM

I'm pretty green when it comes to transmissions, but if the rod is through a hole in the case I would think that it should rotate and move fore/aft without jamming against the side of the hole.

"In my head" I think the lack of play either means that 5th gear is engaged too tightly and will eventually cause wear or the new bushings needing to wear in a bit.

I've read just about every post and article that I could find and other than "some rotational play should be present while in 5th gear", nothing on damage or excessive wear if there is not.