My car took another step today towards full 'Trigger's Broom' status. This time it was the gear lever's turn to be replaced.
1980s era 4/4s had the Ford Type 9 gearbox. Not a bad unit, but let down by a very rubbery gearchange, mainly due to the relatively long throw and the inclusion of a rubber anti-vibration section halfway up the gearbox shaft.
Having briefly tried the gearshift a friend's 4/4 in France this weekend, I decided Enough Was Enough, and when I got back I ordered a quickshift kit from Rally Design. It arrived the following day, and today I decided to have a preliminary run at seeing what would be involved fitting the thing.
As it turned out, it was an utter doddle, so much so that I didn't even take any photographs.
Whip out the old lever as a reference to know how much to bend the new shaft, disassemble the new shaft (2 circlips), put the shaft in the vice, play a gas torch onto the bend point for a couple of minutes to persuade it to bend, a length of pipe to provide a bit more leverage, bend it, dunk it in some water to cool it off, reassemble and fit to the car.
The whole process didn't take half an hour, and I now have a nice snickety-snick gearchange action. Can't wait to try it out on some nice empty twisty B roads.
Highly recommended and at only 38 quid, a real bargain.
