Milano/75 Short-Shifter Conversion!

[AlfaAddict]

Quote:

Originally Posted by junglejustice So, some movement here - See this: http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/show...061#post346061

[junglejustice]

OK, so some good news and some bad news here (for now...)

I think that I have come up with what I would consider - most likely - the way to go (at least for the Milano/75 short-shift solution...)

The way that I approached this was with modification to the shift-lever itself below the pivot-point, (for a shorter throw in your hand up top) and modification to the forward cross-member (removable on a Milano/75 and on later GTV6 models), to allow for clearance of the shift-arm (riding horizontally back to the transaxle) normally above (but now running through) that cross-member!

The cross-member is made of paper-machet and held in place with 4 pieces of bubble-gum - attached to a real sub-frame made out of wet cardboard, so the rocket scientists, Chicken Littles, defenders of the realm and other alarmists can go back to curing cancer and making the wheel rounder! Trust me - you don't have to worry about loosing structural integrity in the vehicle!

Personally, I think that the cross-member it is simply there to prevent the horizontal shift-arm from dragging on the ground when the Lego-shifter setup falls apart! I submit to you that with the modification and re-welding of that "cross-member, it is now actually stronger, than when it left the factory!

[junglejustice]

In any event, I sought to increase the height/final-positioning of my shift-knob to be in closer proximity to the steering wheel as well. I just like that rally-style, high-up shifter-position - provided that the throw in your fist is relatively short and precise (must be some repressed Sebastien Loeb alter-ego state of mind or something...)

Problem is that the more you increase the length of the shifter up top, the more you are back to square one in terms of the throw and in fact you are now worse of again! So to counter-act the diminishing returns from lengthening up top, I had to actually increase the length of the leverage down below to shifter's pivot point by that much more to still attain an overall shortening of the throw in the shifter...!

I guess that one would need only a fraction of the lengthening at the bottom (if you were to actually keep the standard length of the shifter above the pivot point!) For all intentional purposes, one could just cut the top portion of the shifter down (like I did years ago on the street 12 valve) and in essence achieve a shorter throw of the hand, but now your leverage up top is diminished and the geometry is out of whack at the bottom or something? Dunno... It still works to this day in the daily driver, but I like the mods to the 3.7 SO much better!

Make sense so far?

[junglejustice]

So, some of the issues encountered were as follows;

1) Upon closer inspection, I determined that my initial method of lengthening (by sleeving tubing over the two cut ends of the shifter section below the pivot-point) may not work correctly because of the increased thickness of the joined-shaft now hitting the sides of the shifter-housing before the next gear is engaged!

It may have proven to be inconsequential (since it was so very little), and/or because of the increased action (and less distance it now required to engage the next gear), but I did not want to take a chance!

2) I was amazed at how much leverage one exerts on that shift-linkage at the bottom! I tack-welded the test-lengthening pieces in place 3-4 times and each time that I reinstalled the shifter, I barely attach the horizontal shift-arm (headed back to the transaxle) and the welds would simply break off (without as much as even rowing the shifter in a neutral left to right motion!!!)

The shifter is hollow! I found a piece of solid rod that shifted snugly right inside of the two ends of the shifter and then expert welding for my final iteration was at the order of the day. I chamfered the edges of the two ends so that Alan could lay a bead right in that groove there! (Ground the welds down just a bit, so it should be good!)

3) The OEM rubber shift-boot will no longer fit over any of this and I don't know the long-term effects of exposing that plastic shifter pivot-point bushing to water and dust up there. On the 3.7 I'll just keep it well greased until I can find a custom boot-solution!

IN FACT - IT JUST HIT ME!!!!! - WHAT I WILL DO IN THE MORNING IS GRAB AN OLD TIE-ROD-END BOOT (WITH IT'S TAPERED SMALLER END ON THE ONE SIDE) AND CUT IT TO LENGTH -SLIP THE SMALL END OVER THE SHIFTER BOTTOM SECTION AND PULL IT UP LIKE A SOCK TO THE SHIFTER-HOUSING - ZIP-TIE IT TO THE HOUSING AND BE DONE WITH IT!

The shift-bushing at the bottom is brass and can remain exposed for all I care (until we find something better!) I love spontaneous ideas...

4) Since this way of doing it requires modification to the cross-member as well, doing it for others here for now can only apply to Milanos and 75s (with their removable forward cross-members), but I looked at it all and it can't be too hard to just do the GTV6/Alfetta cutting and welding conversion of the cross-member, in-car!

5) With the longer/thinner shifter, you can feel a springy feel to the top of the shifter as the leverage cause it to flex ever so gently - very subtle! Overall though, the throw is short of brilliant!

[junglejustice]

The addition of a shift-knob will position my hand even a bit higher, so in the pictures above my hand its cupped to simulate that final position!

The next step for me at some point would be to see if I can convert the shift-arm to clear the cross-member, rather than converting the cross-member to allow the shift-arm to clear that forward cross-member (by possibly heating and bending - introducing a forward-up and then an onward forward-down curve to that horizontal shift-arm...)

Here again, it may be inconsequential if you only lengthen the bottom by a small amount! I'd say that there is room for about a 1/2 and inch before you hit the cross-member. FYI - I did about 1 3/4 inch at the bottom and about 6 inches at the top!

[alfaspence]

you,ve been busy again havn't you JJ!? nice work!

[junglejustice]

Figured that I will drag this one back up from the dead!

I am happy to report that despite ol' RJR's negative sky-is-falling prediction in the other conversion-thread, this modification works FLAWLESSLY!

It is truly SUPERB if I may say so myself! The throw is significantly shorter, it does not hit the driveshaft as predicted (don't see how it could/would have - the drive-shaft is TO THE SIDE OF IT and the feel is amazing!)

I double shortened my throw to make up for the increased height that I wanted up top, so even with the taller shift-know the throw is still shorter and crisp!

[Alfar7]

JJ:

Quote:

I am happy to report that despite ol' RJR's negative sky-is-falling prediction in the other conversion-thread, this modification works FLAWLESSLY! Then: The next step for me at some point would be to see if I can convert the shift-arm to clear the cross-member, rather than converting the cross-member to allow the shift-arm to clear that forward cross-member (by possibly heating and bending - introducing a forward-up and then an onward forward-down curve to that horizontal shift-arm...)

[Former 75 Owner]

Jesus Alfar7 why don`t you pull your head in.

What is it you get out of making a post like this.Couldn't you of at least extended JJ the cursity of telling him via a pm since you didn't have anything nice to say,rather than post for all to see.

[sh0rtlife]

impresive work JJ..ill definatly be copying it to some extenet unless i can figure out how to do away with the whole thing and go cable shift

[junglejustice]

Thanks guys!

A year on the shifter Richard??? It took me a year from the day that I rolled a stock standard street Milano in to the shop to a complete, driving, full cage race car, moron! Crazy...

Yeah, just ignore the old dude - he's just angry at the world! (Glad to see that you still follow my threads with interest there Richard!) Or, are YOU so self-absorbed and starved for attention yourself that you constantly search the BB for threads with your name/initials in it and then just pipe in!? ) One or the other...

With the new "monkey shift" rebush kit, EVERYTHING was improved greatly any way (mainly the left to right) and now the left to right is better than my street car with simply the top cut down...! So, any increase in the side-to-side movement is NOT noticeable over the improvement in the forward aft throw - the way that I did it!

BTW; There is NO "springy" feel as predicted by Dr. Doom!

Any way, I DON'T see how lengthening the bottom only helps forward an aft movement and not side-to-side movement and I don't want to argue the semantics here either. All I care about is that any "increase" in left to right motion would be due to the fact that I wanted to lengthen the top and it is a VERY acceptable trade-off - given that I gained improvement where I wanted it - forward and aft!

I would love for there to be a better way to do this (without cutting and welding the cross-member), but I wanted to move the shift-knob , so I had to move my throw ALLOT down below!

As far as the car taking a year (a year during which I also helped with the rebuild of Jes' 3.7 AND built up my other 6-speed 3.45 litre 164 LS project and maintained my other 2 street cars) - all on a part-time basis while still earning a living - I am quite content with the progress!

[tiger0529]

The ES30 (the S.Z. and probably the R.Z. too) and the 75 Turbo Evoluzione have a short throw shifter as a standard equipment... The travel is much shorter than that of any 75s or Milanos I have driven to this day. I wonder if the shorter throw is achieved in the same way as you did?? I will go home in a couple of weeks and check that out on my mother's S.Z. by myself I guess (I hate putting any ES30 on a lift because of the deep side "skirts").

[giuliettaevo]

Your mother sure sounds very cooool... 25 Alfa's..

I would need a big stick to get my mother to drive an Alfa.

[Grant]

can you PLEASE take pictures of the mechanical differences between a 75 and an SZ? I'ts really hard to find the odcumentation anywhere..