With the mid shift conversions I keep trying to improve them with everyone I do. I now have a CNC mill and I've spent a fair bit of time programming up a new shifter design.
This is the latest box I built for Paul Samson, a member of the Vic club.
I spend a lot of time working on the geometry of the shifter and each one is dialled in to the box. They are adjustable for preload on the springs that centre the shifter and I dial them in so the shift always pops back over the 3-4 gate.
When going from 2nd to 3rd you just push the shifter forward and it naturally pops into the 3-4 gate and continuing to push forwards has you in 3rd gear. On the way back down from 5th to 4th, pulling back on the shifter and it naturally pops back across into the 3-4 gate. continuing to pull back has you in 4th gear.
There's a bit of fettling to get it right.
Here's the base plate of the new shifter freshly machined on the mill.
Here it is bolted up to the gearbox.
And here's Paul's shift lever modified to suit. It's the traditional top loader style. Also modified the shift knob to tidy up the look of it.
The CNC means you can have a bit of fun with making parts too. It's a great time saver as once I've written the program and made a fixture it's easy to reproduce parts. Here's the new cover plate for the old shifter position. I can knock one up in a fraction of the time it took on my old manual mill. Plus I use to just stamp a date and some initials into them...
Cheers