The Battle of Midway

Looking Shifty

Middies are just like real racing cars They have transaxles, ideal weight distribution, and a low polar movement of inertia (what ever that is[1]). But nobody tells you what a sod it is to have an engine where more sensible people have a backseat.

The crunch comes with the gear change mechanism. Seven-a-like owners can enjoy a direct connection to Mr. Toyota’s rifle bolt gear change. Even Beetle owners have the gearbox pointed at the driver’s bum. But middies have sumps, chassis rails, exhaust pipes, oil coolers, rear axles and wires - a right gallimaufry getting in the way.

Subaru has a rifle bolt gear change as well. Mr. Fuji-Heavy-Industries does it this way.

Movement of the gearlever causes the shifter to slide in two steps of 10mm and rotate in three steps of about five degrees. But the Suby shifter in my middie build is two metres away from my arm and pointed towards following traffic like the ovipositor of a giant metal insect. How the blazes do I get at it with enough control to effect a 5-degree rotation?

A dip in the ideas pool: a Kass sequential – ahh we can dream; some sort of pneumatic or solenoid doodad – well I’d have to invent it first; a long rod with universals – the parts list included three universals, three sliding bearings and I remember Bruce Turnbull saying that the inertia of the long rod could throw a Saker out of gear under hard braking.

Cable Knit

That leaves cables. Let’s follow these snakes.

The cable change is from a Toyota Town Ace - cool donor eh. A magic box under the unit translates sideways movements into back and forth movements of the second arm. I used bent rods initially but this was a big mistake, they bowed mightily under any load and led to the dreaded ‘spongy feel’.

The rods attach to the cables at the rear firewall. I could have bought longer cables such as outboard motor steering cables but I’m too miserly. The photo shows that the handbrake was a pain as well. This sewer system is hidden under a shiny metal box.

The cables whiz around the engine. I’d like to see rods do that!

Now it’s starting to look interesting… The upper cable looks after the sliding movement while the lower cable does rotation. But what’s it all hooked up to, I hear you ask.

The upper cable literally yanks the shifter back and forth. In practice I had to change things on gear lever up front to get more leverage and overcome a snatchy sliding action. The lower cable works a bell crank, which rotates the shifter. It’s all rod ends and bushes and therefore has no slop.

(Looking at this a couple of years later I'll admit the fabrication is awful. It was a rushed lash up to see if the idea worked and welded in place blind using the squeeze and hope method. Problem is, it works very well indeed and I don't want to jinx it by fixing it!)

It feels Okay

Having sat in the car and gone brmmmmbrmm I’d rate the gear change as fair to good. I can feel each gear, they engage positively and there is no sponginess. Nevertheless, the feel is obviously remote and 3^rd to 4^th plane has a slight dogleg as the back and forth movement of the shifter also moves the bell crank rod slightly. All I have to do now is play with the adjuster threads and the battle of midway is won.

Now where the heck does the exhaust pipe go?

[1] Actually a “low polar movement of inertia “is a group of people that care about Antarctica, but can’t be bothered doing anything about it

Rear Suspension Next