Who has done the G50 fork/shaft upgrade?

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I have a full clutch R&R (major DIY job) coming up and am trying to learn more about the fork/shaft upgrade. As far as I know, only Automotion/Performance Products offers the kit which requires no drilling. All others require some drilling into the bell housing, which scares me a little. I'm doing this with (an)other/few Pelicanhead(s). Of course, I'd rather skip the drilling, but will the drill-less kit hold up? Thanks.

JDaniel · JDaniel's Garage

I went with the Automotion type setup ( I didn't get it from them though). John Walker recommends it, so it must be good :-)
It wasn't a flimsy little fix, all the parts looked "robust".
KTL went with the factory fix, you could pm him to see what he has to say.

Thomas Owen · 05-08-2002, 11:32 AM

My 'upgrade' from Performance simply replaced the shaft and the needle bearings with bronze bushings and a new shaft. Works great. I did have to buy a small slide hammer from the local auto parts to pull the old shaft out. If you want to borrow it let me know.
Regards,

Wayne 962 · Wayne 962's Garage

We sell this kit too, although I can't find it in the catalog. I'll have Don put it in. It's the same Weltmeister kit that Automotion and Performance sell...

-Wayne

KTL · 05-09-2002, 06:32 AM

If I were doing it again, I would go with the Weltmeister kit. Like JDaniel said, if John Walker uses it for his customer cars, it must be a good alternative to the factory fix. I was not too familiar with this setup when I did mine, so I figured the factory upgrade would be the way to go. Little did I know that the cutting kit used to enlarge the case bores is NLA. Got lucky and found a local dealer who has the cutting kit. I recall hearing that the bores which carry the shaft have broken in rare instances (maybe due to higher capacity pressure plates?), so there's another reason to go with the Weltmeister shaft kit since it does not take any material away from the shaft mountings like the factory upgrade does.

An alternative to towen's slide hammer suggestion is to get yourself an M6 bolt that's about 50mm long. Screw it partially into the end of the clutch shaft and clamp a pair of Vise-Grip pliers on the threads below the bolt head. Now rap the pliers with your hammer to drive the shaft out of the trans. May take a few good whacks, but it worked for me!