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With the cover bolted down, it's time to set the depth of the shift rods. Each rod has a screwdriver slot on its end, allowing it to be moved in and out. |
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The shift rod adjustment sounds complicated in the manual, but is actually simple: Shift into a gear, then screw the rod in or out until the detent ball is evenly bottomed in its slot. When correctly adjusted, the fork will be centered evenly in its ring, with no pressure to move either forward or backward. |
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Once the rods are adjusted correctly, tighten the lock nuts to secure them. |
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Now it's time to move on to the front section of the gearbox assembly. My first job will be to reinstall the input shaft, then replace its seal.
This seal keeps lubricant from getting out of the gearbox. If it doesn't do its job, the lubricant gets onto the clutch and ruins it. That's an engine-out job to repair -- so it's always worth replacing the seal whenever you have the gearbox out. |
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But wait! Before installing the input shaft, you need to decide whether or not you want to use the freewheel mechanism.
The reason you need to make this decision now is that if you want to use the freewheel, you have to install its actuating fork before you put the input shaft back into the housing.
This picture shows how the pieces go together to make the freewheel work. The actuating fork (brass piece at top) slides the toothed sleeve back and forth on the shaft, to lock or unlock the input shaft and the freewheel hub (not shown.) |
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But I've decided NOT to use the freewheel. I like having freewheel for around-town driving -- but I also drive the car in open-track days, and I've already broken one freewheel hub under the strain of track driving.
The consensus of experts is that the old-style six-roller freewheel hub is strong enough for competition use, but the newer 10-roller hub is weaker. Since all I have are 10-roller hubs, I'm going to play it safe and lock out the freewheel.
The way I'll do that is with a locking ring from Motor Sport Services -- the chrome tube at lower left. |
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The ring fits between the freewheel sleeve and the bearing, pressing the sleeve all the way in the "locked" direction. With the ring in place, the fork isn't needed, so I'll leave it out. |
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With that decision made, I can push the input shaft into the bell housing. |
