Gearshift lever too close to 9" brake servo after upgrade

Just put my engine back in.Have fitted the larger brake servo and 16V master cylinder.Now the engine/box are in - the gearshift lever attached to the gearbox seems VERY close to the brake servo????  Has anyone who has fitted the larger servo and has a 1.8DX / 020 gearbox had the same issue???Any photos of other peoples with the 9" servo would help greatly.Many thanks.

I would ask if you place the selector rod on with the clip on the inside does it scrape the booster. I can't remember the clearance on my Cabby, but it is possible that you can remove it and bend it a bit to clear.

I would make sure that you have the clearance between the relay lever (off the steering rack) to the selector.

I noticed the very same thing with mine the other day when I put the selector lever on so I could put it in gear when torquing up the drive shaft flange bolts.
The lever itself won't hit the servo (as far as I've tested) but I did wonder about the relay rod as Briano has said. If it's an issue I may change to use rod end bearings, or trim the end of the rod so it doesn't scrape.
What mine does touch is one of the brake lines. The downside of fitting them with nothing else in the bay! Still I can bend them to sort that out!

Thanks for the advice briano / paceman

Hopefully tomorrow I will be fitting some of the gear shift lever rods etc.  Paceman, like you I have a brake pipe I formed before fitting the engine that the rod will catch!  As you say - downside of prefitting these items - but I would not have wanted to do these jobs with the engine in place!!  You say -"change to rod end bearings"?? - what do you mean please.

I will let you know what I find tomorrow.

You can modify to use ends like the ones shown here https://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/ForSale/Images/shiftkit_08.jpg
Doesn't need to be a weighted rod. As you can see in the pic the rod attaches to the front not the back. I've not tested this out mind, but it's on my list of things I could do once the car is finished. You can also use small rose joint ends as well.

This is an example of a rose jointed kit: 020 Rod Shift Linkage Upgrades
I suspect the bolts would foul the servo though.
I'll make my own for the fun of it at some point!

There is another option that I didn't mention before as I know you're going for a full standard rebuld but….

If you make the angles on the bracket into 90 degree angles it'll give you two advantages.

1, It'll miss the booster.

2, It'll act as a short shift upgrade.

Yep I know it sounds odd but by trapping the bracket in a vice and hitting it very hard with a large hammer you can bend the angles to 90 degrees and this helps reduce the throw a bit. It's not a massive difference but it definitely reduces the throw somewhat.

If you add the weighted rod (from a mk2/3) it also makes it feel more positive. There is a bit of cutting and welding involved if I remember correctly.

Ian

I'm heading to my unit this afternoon, I'll try to take some snaps of the servo for reference

borednow said

There is another option that I didn't mention before as I know you're going for a full standard rebuld but….

If you make the angles on the bracket into 90 degree angles it'll give you two advantages.

1, It'll miss the booster.

2, It'll act as a short shift upgrade.

Yep I know it sounds odd but by trapping the bracket in a vice and hitting it very hard with a large hammer you can bend the angles to 90 degrees and this helps reduce the throw a bit. It's not a massive difference but it definitely reduces the throw somewhat.

If you add the weighted rod (from a mk2/3) it also makes it feel more positive. There is a bit of cutting and welding involved if I remember correctly.

Ian

Good idea that. If I had a spare shifter arm I'd try that. Don't want to snap the one I've got!

Here is the gap on mine with 9" servo



Fairly close but not too close

Yours looks almost too straight, if try bending it forward slightly away from the servo but remove it and do it in a vice with hammer and heat

Oh, working on a car with Fire, Hammers, and a Vice.... ohhhhhhhhhhhh this is getting your man Card....

I'll have to check mine when I get a chance now, but I don't recall any issues with it hitting the bigger servo, and I'm sure I would have noticed while adjusting the linkage (I hope !!).

OK…. the latest!

Thanks to boredmans advice I have bent the shift lever using heat/hammer/vice so that it now passes under the brake servo clearly.  I had a spare lever to fiddle with - keeping the other as backup.  

The problem with the rod/lever touching the servo.


Better now!




Original unaltered example next to altered version




All seems to moving well.  I will only know when I get the car up and running and can test the clutch/gearbox.  Fingers crossed!

I can't understand how anyone who fits the larger servo and has the DX/020 5spd hasn't had to alter the shift lever.  The engine/gearbox are fixed - the servo is fixed - no adjustments on either.???  

Good job! Now I know what to do with mine. How easy was it to bend? Did you resort to a hammer or just apply some heat?

Glad it seems to have worked.

It could be where the engine is sitting in the engine mounts. There is a bit of fore and aft movement on the gearbox mounts at the back and on the side but not a great deal. If you happen to have them both as far 'back' (ie towards the back of the car) as possible and everyone else has them as far forward as possible then this would mean the difference between hitting and not.

It was my brother in law that did that particular conversion (on two different cars) and he also found the short shift idea from somewhere. He did the belting of the arm way before trying to afix the un bent arm so I have no idea if his would also have fouled.

Weird innit?

Ian