Our own Sherwood Lee introduced his Gate Shift Kit for 915's this weekend at Cambria. The kit looked so simple and well designed I could not resist. As soon as I got home I installed it and took these photos. Sherwood, an automtive technical writer, includes instructions with each kit. I thought it might be nice to have a few extra views to make installing the kit even easier. Some of my photos are a bit on the dark side, still, I think they will help.
Takes about an hour, start to finish, and is well within the reach of most Pelicans. My car is a 1973 so it has the earliest version of the shift housing (this kit won't fit the 72 915 housing).
The goal of the kit is to provide a more positive feel in shifting the 915, something most would agree is needed. It is not notchy but does feel more precise. If you can imagine the shifter with the same spring-loading coming out of the 1st-2nd gate as you have coming out of the 5th-reverse gates, you've got the idea.
1. The first step is accomplished with the shift housing still in the car. I assume this is due to the need to stabilize the housing against the pressure of the 5th/reverse springs. The new Carrier plate must be installed first, the main trick here is to apply downward pressure on the factory carrier plate as you loosen the nuts fore and aft that hold it down. This photo shows the 2 nuts that must be loosened to place the new plate on top of the old one.
The main thing here is to realize that there is strong pressure on the factory plate from the springs below it. You will never have both nuts off at the same time. Remove the first one and it's washer, slide the new carrier plate on and tighen the nut down. Then remove the other nut and washer, still keeping downward pressure, and slide the carrier plate over the other nut.
With the front nut tight, remove the back nut and place a wave washer (supplied) over the stud and place the nut back down. Now do the same for the front nut. (Sherwood's instructions say to use the flat washer, I think he ment to indicate the wave washer here..). Here's the new carrier plate installed:
2. Now install the gate shift arm onto the shift lever. Sherwood includes a worm gear to hold it in place, while this works, it seems that welding this arm in place later would be the best idea. The worm gear allows adjustment but may not be the best method of attaching the shift arm in the long run.
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Adjustment just insures that the arm slides evenly around the carrier plate tabs. You may have to slide the carrier plate laterally to allow for correct movement of the gate arm. This photo shows where I placed mine:
3. Shift into neutral and remove the housing from the car.
Check the condition of the ball socket and bushing, this is a good time to replace the bushing if worn.
Remove the 2 lock rings which retain the existing pivot pin. This photo is poor but you may be able to see the red arrow pointing to one of the lock rings. They come out easily with some long nose pliers. Clean them and set them aside for use in a minute. Now slide the old pivot pin out. Here's what they look like:
Slide the new pivot pin in (temporarily) so that the retaining ring grooves line up on either side of the fork. Now check the clearance for the pivot pin. Mine looked like this and I did not adjust the housing for more clearance:
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With the factory short shift kit you will have to remove some of the aluminum above the pin as it sits higher. This is an easy job.
4. Assemble the gate shift tension assembly. Here's what it looks like assembled:
Place the gate plate on the housing and line up the tension bolt with the pivot pin. It's important to get the bolt right on top of the pivot pin. There is a recess in the plate which aligns it with the top of the housing. When you have it lined up, mark the housing where you will be drilling holes to mount the plate.
I stuffed the inside of the housing with rags to keep metal shavings from entering, there's probably lots of grease in there and you don't want these shavings mixing with the grease.
Once the holes are drilled, attach the plate with the screws provided. It's a bit tight but you'll get it.
Now attach the pivot pin with lubricant and slide the lock rings into the pin. Later model shifters with the 1-piece fork (77 and later?) require a spacer on the tension bolt.
Set the clearance between the tension bolt and the pivot pin at 1.5mm. Lubricate the contact surfaces.
5. Now, install the shift housing in the car. Test drive the car to verify the tension on the spring. Also, check the boot for intereferances, mine seemed to affect the spring tension slightly but not enough to matter.
I don't know how this works with a short shift kit but without it, it is a nice improvement. Not too notchy, an easy assembly for a good improvement in shifting.