Is my shifter bushing missing?

[PHulst]

I will try to give you another data point from my spare. Later this weekend though, working on Christmas shopping tomorrow.

Thanks, that would be great.

 

[PHulst]

Brought the lever control to a machinist friend today. The base of the hole (original diameter) was 0.695 inches, similar to the 0.7 that Duane noted. I measured the egged-out opening at 0.8, but inside was worn so much we milled out to approx 0.9 inches in order to have enough native material to allow a new sleeve to properly align.

An original bushing on the end of my current shifter measures at 0.680, and a replacement bushing is even smaller. The plan is to machine a sleeve to 0.685 giving it 0.005 clearance and see how that works. Odds are that will give the shifter enough clearance for the current original bushing or any aftermarket replacement.

I will update this once I get the parts back later this week. We didn't have time today to make the sleeve, so he will do that in the next few days.

 

[Bob_Spidell]

Always good to see a proper repair on an original part. The brass shifting forks eventually wear down, but can be brazed up and milled down as good as new; presumably, you can do that an unlimited number of times. For contrast, many (most?) modern transmissions use plastic on shifting fork contacts, and when they wear down--or break--they are NFG.

 

[PHulst]

Today I had a chance to pick up my repaired control lever for the transmission. I've attached a photo.
You can see by the thickness of the sleeve how much we had to mill out in order to reach enough original metal to support the new sleeve both on top and bottom. The sleeve was honed out just enough to give the bushing on my shifter the clearance it needed to work well.

Of note, using an original bushing the size is a bit larger, but the inside where the shifter inserts is worn enough to give it some slop.
Using an almost new bushing which is minimally smaller but not worn inside, there is virtually no slop in the system at all and it is a significant improvement from where I started. If I were designing the control lever, or thinking of another repair, you could likely make the sleeve taller and have it support the bushing even more as you go through the motions of the shifting.

In an event, an original part was saved and my first Austin-Healey repair project is done. I actually finished the fuel tanks sender already, but started the transmission first so it's the first one I undertook.
Thanks to Duane and Richard for the offer of parts. If anyone ever needs this part repaired in the future it's not that difficult for a machine shop to do over the course of a couple of hours.

Patrick

 

[healeyblue]

Looks great! nice save.

 

[Martinld123]

On my new 100-6 the previous owner told me he never could get the lower shifter bushing to work correctly whether he tried the brass original or nylon replacement. I removed the transmission tunnel cover yesterday to do some looking, and removed the shifter to have a look.
Shown in the photos are the shifter, a small wire ring laying in there, and a view into the shifter area of the transmission. All parts removed are shown, other than the nuts/washers holding the shifter in place on top.
I can't tell by looking so can anyone tell me from experience if there is still a bushing laying in there? If so, how might it be removed?

Just trying not to break anything.

Thanks for your assistance!

If I understand your problem I might have had the same problem with my BN2 trans. My shifting was very lose in and around neutral and very very hard to tell what gear I was in. I also thought the problem with my shifting was the brass or the nylon insert but instead the centering screw that centers the ball just needed to be turned 90 degrees to steady the shift center point, if that is clear? I had also blamed the problem on cooper insert and also the nylon one I bought but in the end it was just that centering screw that centers the shift ball in the groove had to be turned 90% to make center. Easy fix so I hope that is your problem. Marty