Smooth shifting

[rdorman]

David, you are the man so here goes..............

I am not happy with the way the toploader shifts. Here are some items.

What is the best shifter for nice smooth/fast shifting. Think road race. Some times now when I really go for the gears fast, I miss them. The current shifter has a kit from Unique that mounts the shifter forward on the transmission so that the shifter handle comes up straight instead of the bent forward type shifter. Are you familiar with this? Can you see this as being a performance issue?

Centerforce clutch. The travel seems excessive to disengage. 3/4 slave, 3/4 master. Peddle effort seems about right. How should I adjust for the throw out bearing and how much for release? I want to put a travel stop in but need to get it adjusted correctly first.

Fluid recomendation?

Down shifting to first from second required double clutching, or a lot of patience. No noise or other drama, just time. Thoughts?

I no idea if the bellhousing and transmission where perfect aligned or just bolted together. Is this something I should look at? How would I begin?

If you could give me a 'grocery' list of items to go through, that would be GREAT!

Thanks
Rick

[Tony Radford]

Rick, my car came with the same shifter set up, a Hurst Comp plus with an Indy straight stick. My problem was that when slamming into third, my knuckles were into the toggle switches. I purchased a new stick from Hurst that curves back towards the driver right out of the boot and then goes straight up from there. It's black annodize aluminum and is about an inch shorter in height. I put a black Hurst ball with the toploader pattern, which sits perfectly for quick shifts. Best improvement I ever made.

[rdorman]

I have no problem with slamming the dash.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't shift bad, but I can not beleive that this is as good as it gets!

Rick

[Clois Harlan]

Rick and Tony,

I have a toploader in my Cobra as well but my shifter came from Mark at Toploader Heaven. I have no problems with the way it shifts but like Tony I sometimes get my knuckles slammed into my dash during hard shifts. In fact at Road America I my knob came off the shifter while going to third and my hand actually continued forward enough to turn off my fuel pump switch. My car stopped at the end of the long straight-a-way. Everyone passed me!

Mark is building me a short shifter just for racing that will not extend forward as much. I hope this works.

By the I think reverse is susposed to be difficult to engage.

Clois

[rdorman]

Tony, so our shifter is a comp plus with an indy stick and not an indy shifter? The lever you bought, was it 538 0202?

I am going to look up toploader heaven. Are your dash switches the covered aircraft type? Would that have stopped you from turning off the pump?

Rick

[427sharpe]

I used to have a hesitant shifter, installed Royal Purple, and the problems went away. I also had good luck with Red Line Synthetic gear oil, but it's harder to find when you need it so order ahead if you want to run it. In fact, I use RedLine Oil.

[rdorman]

I thought there may be some help available in the lube department. I can readily get red line and royal purple locally. I have used redline in the past and really like it.

I am thinking that I have an Indy shifter and not one of the super shifters nor the competition plus shifters. I do not recall seeing the adjustable stops on the shifter like the comp and super shifters.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE USED ALL THE SHIFTERS, WHICH IS BEST AND WHAT DIFFERENCE DID YOU NOTICE?

I have always wondered about the linkage setups. The sloppy way hurst linkage is assembled with the bushed pin in a hole type setup always seems to me to be a very cheap way out. I have often wondered what difference a more positive spherical type set up might do.

Any one used their blueprinted/nascar style shifters?

Rick

[Clois Harlan]

Rick,

When my shift knob came off my hand careened (sp) into the fuel pump switch (that is the aircraft type with the cover) and I turned my fuel pump off. I didn't even know it for a few seconds after I got stopped off track.

Here is Marks web site.

http://www.toploaderheaven.com

I believe that David probably has the same type of shifters as Mark. You may want to check out Marks Pictures and see if your shifter is like one of the ones he has.

Clois

[Tony Radford]

Rick, that's the one. It puts the knob in a perfect location for slamming through the gears. That tall Indy chrome stick is awful. Part of the challange is to find one that is in stock. Hurst does production runs and inventories a limited number of "specialty" sticks. I was lucky when I ordered mine. I bought it through Barnett Performance here in Atlanta. It was around $60 or $70.

[RoyBoy]

The TKO II was improved by using ULTRA SHIFT made by Performance Unlimited and shift lever was replaced with one made by OLTHOff. The lubricant made power shifts 100% better. The short - offset shift lever by OLTHOFF is a work of art and doesn't bite the palm of your hand. Shifter is much better positioned for driving. It didn't help with heavy wheel spin up to 110.

[rdorman]

.......... no comment
Rick

[David Kee]

Sorry guys I do not get to watch the forum as much as I would like to.
If you are having to double clutch you are effectively changing the input shaft speed and allowing the engagement teeth of the gear to line up. The problem is probably not in the shifter but in the clutch disengagement or the synchronizer assemblies. The shifter has a very basic function of selecting gears. If it is adjusted incorrectly or worn the transmission will simply not shift even if you double clutch.

[rdorman]

As I live and breath! How come I just knew you where gone to say that?!?

Ah, another project for this winter! Any pointers on inspecting the synchros?

Thanks much

Rick

[Chaplin]

I bet it is simply driver error

[rdorman]

Originally posted by Chaplin


I bet it is simply driver error

Get back to work will ya!

Rick

[coyled]

Rick, the clutch might not be fully disengaging. Its not always easy to tell. When you take that tranny apart, inspect the old syncros. The teeth might be pretty rounded off which would slow down engagement. The inside round part should not be smooth, it needs to be rough or nurled looking. This is so that it slows down the gear to match the engagement of the next gear. I would replace the syncro's for sure, they are cheap. The syncro's mesh with a slider gear. If the slider gears are rounded, it will slow up engagement of the syncro. You can sharpen them yourself as long as there is still enough meat left on the slider. I had a top loader haging up on me but new syncro's and sharpend sliders did the trick. Scott

[rdorman]

Thanks for the info!
Rick