nkemp
07-31-2013, 03:07 PM
My shifter ball now seems to stay tight...FINALLY! Before it seemed to always be loose. Tighten it up and if it rotates 1 degree CC it is totally loose...like spin it off loose And I didn't like that feel.
FIX: First a std washer (SS of course) then I stacked 4 or 5 split ring lock washers and tightened the ball onto them until tight and until the pattern shows in the right direction. The size lock washers I used fit over the shaft and inside the shifter ball so they cannot be seen.
The reason this seems to work is 2 fold:
The anti rotation function of the lock washers plus
The stack of split ring lock washers acts like a spring between the shifter shaft and the ball. So even if you do rotate the ball a bit it doesn't become loose. One split ring didn't work as well as the stack maybe because the nut in the ball was not contacting the lock washer.
An alternative might be a piece of hard rubber, the correct length, slipped over the shifter shaft and the ball tightened up against it to compress it against the shaft..
Also ... There is something weird about the ball & shifter threads. Originally I was looking for a nut to take up some of the slack under the ball. I found a bolt whose treads PERFECT into the shifter knob. When I took the nut from the bolt used to size it and tried to put the nut on the shifter shaft it would not go. I don't have what is needed to verify this but I wonder if the shaft is metric and the ball is English thread (or the other way around).
Nick
FIX: First a std washer (SS of course) then I stacked 4 or 5 split ring lock washers and tightened the ball onto them until tight and until the pattern shows in the right direction. The size lock washers I used fit over the shaft and inside the shifter ball so they cannot be seen.
The reason this seems to work is 2 fold:
The anti rotation function of the lock washers plus
The stack of split ring lock washers acts like a spring between the shifter shaft and the ball. So even if you do rotate the ball a bit it doesn't become loose. One split ring didn't work as well as the stack maybe because the nut in the ball was not contacting the lock washer.
An alternative might be a piece of hard rubber, the correct length, slipped over the shifter shaft and the ball tightened up against it to compress it against the shaft..
Also ... There is something weird about the ball & shifter threads. Originally I was looking for a nut to take up some of the slack under the ball. I found a bolt whose treads PERFECT into the shifter knob. When I took the nut from the bolt used to size it and tried to put the nut on the shifter shaft it would not go. I don't have what is needed to verify this but I wonder if the shaft is metric and the ball is English thread (or the other way around).
Nick