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jhsiegle Member
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I just bought a 1974 JH5 with a 5 speed Getrag. Unfortunately the shift linkage is terribly worn. It feels like the shifter is set in a bowl of jello - extremely difficult to reliably find gears. I am told that Pete Bahr will perform the definative linkage repair ($385.00), but he needs a critical mass of 3 or 4 worn linkage units to cover his machinist costs. If anyone else has a similar problem and wants to get the fix, please let me know (jhsiegle@gmail.com) or contact Pete directly. Alternatively, if anyone has a better suggestion for the repair please let me know. |
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Jensen Healey Super Moderator 
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Welcome to the board! If you are handy, a lot can be done to tighten up the shifter. One can install sleeves into all the pivot bolt holes. It's best to have a machine shop bore the holes for accuracy. Bronze sleeves would be nice, but steel or hard brass will work for many miles. I used hard brass and lubed everything with wheel bearing grease. Replacing the trunnion may help but the ball ends of the shafts inside the trunnion are usually worn. You can sleeve the trunnion and bore for larger pins to eliminate excessive slop. Also check the rubber bushings at the transmission mounts. These are available from Delta Motorsports. Pete's certainly not getting rich from providing this service! He is an engineer IIRC and I expect his rebuilds will far outlast my shadetree efforts. Kurt |
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pbahr Member 
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Kurt, I think the magic words are "If you are handy...". Unfortunately, some owners are not handy or if they are, they don't have the time to sort out the problems. A major issue for this Shifter is that the services of a machine shop are required and shops that will tolerate these small one-off jobs are very hard to find. I was lucky to find a 3-man shop about 10 miles from my house that has been happy to help me with the Shifter and several of my other Kits that need machine shop work. It also helps a great deal if you are conversant in "machine shop talk", and not many of us are. Of course, you need to have appropriate measurement tools like micrometer, vernier calipers etc as well as being able to prepare shop drawings in a manner that the machinist will understand. I've rebuilt more than a dozen of these Shifters and have found that the factory changed design several times through their limited production. As for ordering parts from Delta or Robey, several parts are NLA: Trunion #97337, Spigot #97344, Linkage and Gearshift #97340. Others have configurations that may not match your assembly as told in the examples below. The rubber bushings (not shown on any of my parts Manual drawings) at the transmission mounts are available but most of the factory Support, Shaft Pivot parts are not configured to accept it. Seems that they changed that design very late and all but GT and late '75 JH Support, Shaft Pivot must be opened up to accept the Bushing. Really hard opening a large diameter hole with your cordless drill.....so you need to take it to the machinist. There are three versions of the 6mm Peg, Linkage Retaining: soft SST, mild steel and hardened steel. If you need to modify your Trunion by re-locating your holes, just hope that is not one of the hardened types. You can use it but the Trunion must be annealed prior to drilling – perhaps your (now, new BFF) machinist can help. There are similar stories for almost every part in this assembly and that does not include correcting the misguided efforts of prior owners - have you ever tried to remove a hard steel roll-pin from a blind hole in aluminum?????? Another job for your new BFF. By now your new BFF is getting tired of you knocking on his door every 2-3 days…………… I really feel bad for drivers that have Shifters in need of rebuild. It is no fun driving a car where changing gears requires a prayer each time you shift……… I’ve said it before, if we can get enough people together, this will probably be the last batch of Shifters that I’ll rebuild – then a year later, I get one or two people that have a real problem with their Shifter. Who know what the future holds……………… The base cost of the Kit is $385 + shipping but I’ve been able to give a $20-30 discount in the past which is proportional to the number of Kits in the batch over quantity three. This is because a large part of the machine shop cost is in the set-up time. If interested, contact me at peteb01@comcast.net YELODOG Attachment: 16 Complete sm.jpg (Downloaded 102 times) |
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