Popping out of gear fixed

[Zed Head]

My apologies. I mixed up my terminologies, using throw for the actuating portion below the pivot, and for the lever itself.

What I said wasn't backward in whole, it was internally inconsistent.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Zed Head

[Zed Head]

My mistake in not being clear. I should have stopped with - what lever are you using?

Edited October 3, 2014 by Zed Head

[Zed Head]

What I would really like to know though, is where the shifter with the longer actuator below the pivot point came from. All of the ones I've seen have about the same length. I'd like to have one that gives a shorter lever throw.

Another edit - I'm going to guess that the rod on the left is a 240Z rod, and the one on the right is 280Z. I already have several of those. So no luck for me.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Zed Head

[LeonV]

That's what I said.

Then you said it was the other way around. And showed that the longer arm was the one with the problem. Now you're saying the the longer arm is the way to go.

Martin never implied the rod on the left would have a shorter throw, where did you deduce that from? I think you initially confused the issue when saying that the shifter on the right will have a "longer throw".

[Zed Head]

No, I just wasn't clear on what the real problem was. That's why I said it was weird. As I noted, the real issue isn't the throw, it's how deep the longer arm (of the "shorter-stroke" shifter) sits in the hole. So grinding the top of the hole away is the correct solution.

Edit - actually, I think that it's just too wide at the base of the shaft of the actuating portion. Because, assuming the same diameters up to the pivot point, the one with the longer actuating arm should end up farther away from the edge of the hole. That is the heart of all of my confusion.

Edit again - actually it won't end up farther away at that point. It's an interesting exercise. Since the bottom of the actuator is moving the top of the striking rod cylinder closer to the top of the actuator, it makes sense that it would bind in that spot, since the bottom of the actuator moves the whole cylinder farther before the top of the actuator can get out of the way. Probably clear to many, I just didn't get it.

It may be why, though the later ZX shifters have a spring loaded moveable pivot point. When you press down on a ZX lever you get a long actuator, then if you release the downward force the spring pushes the whole shift lever back up. That would give the benefits of a short-stroke (long actuator) lever without the binding problem described here.

Sorry for cluttering up the thread. I did figure out some new things though. I might try a ZX shifter in my Z to see what happens.

We're all in agreement on short-stroke shifters, and how they work.

Edited October 3, 2014 by Zed Head

[JR Ohio]

I just made the same swap. The straight-ish lever came with the 5spd and the one on the right with the longer lower portion was stock in my '72 240 4spd. Using the one from the 4spd gives a resulting shorter throw to shift the gears and mine doesn't make contact like has been described above. I also have the brass bushings in the shifter for the pivot and plastic at the bottom.

John

[Zed Head]

I have three different levers, not including the one n my 76. A straight lever with the spring-loaded pivot, from an 83 ZX 5 speed I believe, a straight lever with no spring-loaded pivot, from an 80 ZX 5 speed, and a bent lever, from a 78 5 speed. They all have the notch marks, but the Zx levers both have long scrapes in addition.

A person could probably spend some time fine tuning their shift mechanism. I'm surprised at the variations.

The middle lever is the 280Z lever.

[JR Ohio]

My '72 240 is longer from the pivot to the ball. No problems and a nice short shift!

[Werup]

Zed head: Im not sure on both my levers, the straight on the left was in the car, with the gearbox when i bought (importet from the states) and on the gearbox is says 280zx with yellow paint.

The new s-shape lever is one i bought on ebay, it said nothing about year in the add :/