Good day
I find it difficult to select reverse with my type 9 gearbox as the space for the lever to move to the left is limited, see the pics below. To try and remedy this, I have removed some material from the metalastic bush thing (red circled lump between the knob and the kink in the shaft, ooh err missus) to try to get some more movement and also moved the tail end of the gear box to the right as far as possible within the tunnel. But I still have the issue. I don't want to remove any chassis material. Without the gaitor on I can get reverse OK, but once I fit the leather gaitor it's very difficult due to the material thickness. I replaced the saddle recently too, so that is not worn out.

My options are:
1 remove some more material from the red circled lump, but not too much as it will fail and probably come come off when changing gear. Heat from grinder might affect the rubber too.

2 Remove the lump all together and get someone to weld a sleeve in it's place to keep the knob in the same relative position, has anyone removed this lump? what's underneath, a thread?? What is the purpose of the lump anyway? I suspect some sort of cushioning device which maybe I don't really need??

3 raise the tail of the gearbox by about 4cm. Think I can add some spaces under the rear mount and get some longer bolts. The 2 UJ's in the propshaft should be able to handle it, I think.

Any advice?


[img]
gear stick 1 in car [/img]


[img]
gear stick in reverse [/img]
in reverse, not sure why it's upside down though!


[img]
side view of gear stick [/img]
side view


[img]
rear view of gear stick [/img]
rear view showing amount of material I've removed from the lump

Cut it all off and weld is what I would do as I did on my old car
Jacko

Yes, agreed just do away with the large sleeve as I did.

Isn't the large lump in the gearstick a vibration isolator?

Cutting the gearstick off and re-welding the gear knob on would work but may make the gearstick vibrate a little.

Doesn't that make it unpleasant to drive/hold?

Does it actually matter?

I don't have one on mine and don't notice any undue vibrations

OK thanks chaps, I will remove the lump and get a sleeve/extension welded on.

I did this on my JBA was just fine as a solid shaft (at a right weird angle too), if you hold the bottom of the shaft you feel how little it vibrates with out the bush. Just Ford trying to be refined...

I wrapped the of the gear stick in a soaked old towel to stop the bottom parts melting, worked fine.

[Edited on 25/2/20 by Mr Whippy]

I used an angry-grinder to cut the cover off the isolation thingy - this was not a great move, as the rubber bush inside started to smoke, and smelled horrible!

IIRC, the stick length was just right after I removed the coupling; I don't think I extended the stick afterwards, but I had used a shift extender so probably hadn't needed it.

If you fit a quick shift kit to the existing gearstick it will both raise it by 10-15mm and reduce the amount of movement needed to select reverse.

Just to update you, here is the modified gearstick with "lump" removed and extender shaft welded to side of stick. Plus I raised the tail of the gearbox by approx 12 mm, so both these fixes allow me to select all the gears without hitting the chassis. Locost solution...

Note that the gearbox mount now has a bolt through it, not just resting on as per photo....

ETA removing the vibration isolator lump has not made any difference in the vibrations felt through the gearstick either.....


[img]
modified gearstick [/img]


[img]
raised type 9 gearbox [/img]

[Edited on 3-3-20 by Slater]