T5 Gearbox Linkage

[SILICONEKID345HP]

I`m a little lost ! what are you doing to the gearbox ?

[Sardonicus]

This kind of Daz And thanks to the contributors this is such a cheap and easy mod if I would of known this was so available I would have done it sooner or when the car was off the road whilst engine work

Edited by Sardonicus on Sunday 11th October 19:47

[NTEL]

450Nick said:

I think you might be right there, the one I've bought came from a bloke with a Tuscan who used it on his so hopefully it will fit, I will update...

Just to clear this point up Nick, the one you have is a quaiffe unit from Burton Power that fits a Cosworth T5. I had to modify the base plate in order to fit the TVR T5 and also re-drill two of the fixing holes. I though I mentioned that to you?

A bloke with a Tuscan

Edited by NTEL on Sunday 11th October 21:07

[ChimpOnGas]

Sardonicus said:

This kind of Daz And thanks to the contributors this is such a cheap and easy mod if I would of known this was so available I would have done it sooner or when the car was off the road whilst engine work

Edited by Sardonicus on Sunday 11th October 19:47

Love it Simon, you should have been a graphic designer

[Sardonicus]

ChimpOnGas said:

Love it Simon, you should have been a graphic designer

You bloody piss taker .......... for or those who are contemplating this mod Paul the USA guy already knows what we are doing trying to achieve

Edited by Sardonicus on Sunday 11th October 22:12

[SILICONEKID345HP]

Got you ! so the gear box was designed to have the gearstick further forward ..

What are you going to do ?

[Sardonicus]

SILICONEKID345HP said:

Got you ! so the gear box was designed to have the gearstick further forward ..

What are you going to do ?

No, they just have different configs for different vehicles TVR just made the wrong choice may of been costs etc who knows?

[SILICONEKID345HP]

Sardonicus said:

o, they just have different configs for different vehicles TVR just made the wrong choice may of been costs etc who knows?

Do you just change the linkage ?

[Sardonicus]

Start from the beginning of the post Darren it's more involved but yes the linkages go

[MPoxon]

450Nick said:

I did look at that one and have seen some bad reviews. In the states the one with good reviews is the hurst one which looks exactly the same as the Burton Power one (and about the same price) so I would go with the Burton one as it is a quality, race proven product that a lot of the Tuscan boys use.

Another point to note is that the short shifter has a higher pivot point than stock, so the unit it taller and may not fit without modification to the trim. I'll let you know on this point when I get the car back this week, but at worst it should just be a minor persuasion...

Hi Nick,

How did you get on with the Burton Power quick shift in the end. I might get David to do this mod to mine along with the S10 when it is next in.

Matthew

[MPoxon]

Sardonicus said:

Another one in progress shortly inc 5th bearing mod retainer ordered from Paul Cangialosi inc the shorter shift rail

Hi Simon, sounds like a good shout installing the 5th bearing mod at the same time, what kit did you go for in the end. I found this on tinternet:
http://www.5speeds.com/t5.htm

Also what short shift did you opt for in the end?

[Sardonicus]

Not sorted the shifter yet Mat going to look at the options when I get it together may be home brew not sure that link is Paul Cangialosi he is the man for Borg Warner stuff amongst others and the originator of that bearing retainer

[ChimpOnGas]

SILICONEKID345HP said:

Do you just change the linkage ?

Daz, here are some comments from people that have already done the mod or know about it's benefits...

db484bhpv8 said:

Talk to John Reid at Readman racing He offers this as an upgrade

450Nick said:

Hi all, I thought I'd just pipe up and say that I had this mod done a couple of weeks ago off the back of this thread and a chat with John Reid and it works great!, Would I recommend it? Yes definitely. The gearchange is much, much slicker and more like a .22 rifle bolt action now which makes the car even more of a pleasure to drive. The only thing is that now the gearchange is so nice and slick, it almost feels like the throw is a little longer than it needs to be so I've just a Burton Short shift kit which will be going on this week. I shall report back if it fits with a short review

BoostedChim said:

I had the first test run in mine last night and it is much improved

I don't claim the S-10 tail housing idea as mine, far from it clearly John Reid at Readman racing has been doing it for years and even before that TVR themselves deleted their own rather Heath Robinson linkage by the time they had released the Tuscan, all TVR models from the Tuscan on had this S-10 tail housing on the T5 gearbox.

I started this post before I knew John Reid was doing it but it came as no surprise to me when I found out he was already doing it. I simply looked at TVRs Heath Robinson linkage and knowing it was a weakness then looked at how TVR subsequently deleted it on the Tuscan/T350/Sagaris models.

If you think about it the TVR linkage is a rather comically complex way of moving the gear stick position approximately 6" forward on the box. It uses a whole host of joints that are inevitably all subject to play & slop to send your shifting action down to the back of the tail housing only for it all to be transmitted back up to the front again where it meets the selector forks.

That's nuts when you think about it, to get the best feel from a T5 (or any gearbox) you want the gear lever as close to the shifter forks as possible, and to do it with as few joints as possible.

TVR used the excellent Borg Warner T5 from 1995 on, this box is well known for it's lovely shift qualities and feel. In the Griffs & Chims, TVR then set about deleting these sweet shifting traits by adding their own linkage in order to just get the gear stick in the right place.

The truth is there's a much much better way of making sure the gear stick exits the transmission tunnel in the correct place than adding the overly complex and full of joints solution TVR gave us.

And the results speak for themselves....

450Nick said:

Hi all, I thought I'd just pipe up and say that I had this mod done a couple of weeks ago off the back of this thread and a chat with John Reid and it works great!, Would I recommend it? Yes definitely. The gearchange is much, much slicker and more like a .22 rifle bolt action now which makes the car even more of a pleasure to drive. The only thing is that now the gearchange is so nice and slick, it almost feels like the throw is a little longer than it needs to be so I've just a Burton Short shift kit which will be going on this week. I shall report back if it fits with a short review

BoostedChim said:

I had the first test run in mine last night and it is much improved

The Chimera is a driver's car!

Any improvement to the tactile pleasure and feedback the driver enjoys when connecting with the car's controls makes for a significantly better driver's car.

And improving the gear shift is one of the best things you can do to any driver's car!

[MPoxon]

Sardonicus said:

Not sorted the shifter yet Mat going to look at the options when I get it together may be home brew not sure that link is Paul Cangialosi he is the man for Borg Warner stuff amongst others and the originator of that bearing retainer

What are you thoughts on this from one of the Cossie forums:

"I was told by cts when i got my box not to use one as u tend to end up beating the synchro and damageing the box"

I am definitely going to do the S10 conversion and 5th gear retainer sounds like a no brainer.

[450Nick]

So I picked up the car last week with the short shift kit on from the bloke with the Tuscan (cheers Dave C). It was a tight fit to get in there, and Dave B made up a dog-leg gear lever mount to offset it to the correct location (around 2" to the right of the gearbox centreline). To do this by the way, he used the base of a Cerbera gearstick, as it has a vibration and heat insulating bush type thing which will stop the gearstick getting hot and buzzing too much. It all works very well though now, and the gearshift throw is nice and short. I haven't had much of a chance to drive it properly, but it seems very eager to change gear, and the shifts are very positive with the gearstick held absolutely tight when in a position. You can more or less change gear with a finger movement now which goes extremely well with the character of the engine. Great stuff

[Sardonicus]

MPoxon said:

What are you thoughts on this from one of the Cossie forums:

"I was told by cts when i got my box not to use one as u tend to end up beating the synchro and damageing the box"

I am definitely going to do the S10 conversion and 5th gear retainer sounds like a no brainer.

You got to go some to beat the syncho's but yes its possible if your going for it but then its possible even with what were running currently if you tried hard enough I've run quick shifters and no insulators in the past on RWD fords with no issues or buzzing

[450Nick]

Sardonicus said:

ou got to go some to beat the syncho's but yes its possible if your going for it but then its possible even with what were running currently if you tried hard enough I've run quick shifters and no insulators in the past on RWD fords with no issues or buzzing

Yeah we weren't sure if it would be a problem or not, other TVRs using the S10 do suffer heat issues, but that's more likely to be due to the Speed 6 Cat placement. This was just belt and braces so we don't have to re-do anything in the case there are heat issues.

[ChimpOnGas]

450Nick said:

So I picked up the car last week with the short shift kit on from the bloke with the Tuscan (cheers Dave C). It was a tight fit to get in there, and Dave B made up a dog-leg gear lever mount to offset it to the correct location (around 2" to the right of the gearbox centreline). To do this by the way, he used the base of a Cerbera gearstick, as it has a vibration and heat insulating bush type thing which will stop the gearstick getting hot and buzzing too much. It all works very well though now, and the gearshift throw is nice and short. I haven't had much of a chance to drive it properly, but it seems very eager to change gear, and the shifts are very positive with the gearstick held absolutely tight when in a position. You can more or less change gear with a finger movement now which goes extremely well with the character of the engine. Great stuff

Brilliant stuff, really pleased to hear how well this mod worked out for you.

Mine goes in to Lloyd Specialist Developments on the 28th November to get it all fitted along along with the new lighter clutch and a few other little enhancements.

I should have finally accumulated all the bits and bobs by then

Once it's all done I'm looking forward to a super slick gearshift and a lovely light clutch action which should really enhance the driving pleasure I already get from 'Ol Gasbag'

Thanks for your feedback 450Nick

[MPoxon]

Thanks for the advice Simon & Nick. Mine is booked in with David Batty to have this work done.

Dave - another very useful thread, thank you very much. I like your thinking of getting the best out of what we have without spending a fortune and keeping originality. What clutch are you going for? feel free to point me in the direction of a thread if there is one.

[450Nick]

MPoxon said:

Thanks for the advice Simon & Nick. Mine is booked in with David Batty to have this work done.

Dave - another very useful thread, thank you very much. I like your thinking of getting the best out of what we have without spending a fortune and keeping originality. What clutch are you going for? feel free to point me in the direction of a thread if there is one.

I have a TVR Power AP clutch - seems to hold the power no problem and has a nice light pedal - easy choice!

http://www.powersperformance.co.uk/store/slug/v8-c...