S3 Gear Linkage Question.

[PatHeald]

I have an '87 TurboHC with a Citroen box.

I have just been fitting new bushes etc to the gearchange rod linkage.

As I was fitting new nylon thrust washers to the Relay Lever Pivot, it occured to me that changing the pivot ratio could be used to shorten the fore/aft shift movement.

A quick look at the parts book does indeed reveal that some, presumably earlier, cars were fitted with a lever with a 0.86:1 ratio rather than the 1:1 ratio on my car.

Does anyone know if I can just fit this higher ratio lever and therefore shorten the shift, or am I going to run into problems selecting gears?

I appreciate that this mod would not effect the crossgate movement.

Thanks, Pat

[lotusguy]

I have an '87 TurboHC with a Citroen box.

I have just been fitting new bushes etc to the gearchange rod linkage.

As I was fitting new nylon thrust washers to the Relay Lever Pivot, it occured to me that changing the pivot ratio could be used to shorten the fore/aft shift movement.

A quick look at the parts book does indeed reveal that some, presumably earlier, cars were fitted with a lever with a 0.86:1 ratio rather than the 1:1 ratio on my car.

Does anyone know if I can just fit this higher ratio lever and therefore shorten the shift, or am I going to run into problems selecting gears?

I appreciate that this mod would not effect the crossgate movement.

Thanks, Pat

Pat,

You could change the ratio as you indicate, but you will lose some mechanical advantage when you do so making it harder to shift into a gear. You will shorten the 1/2 and 3/4 shifts, but the added force required to do so may not be an overall improvement.

You will not have any trouble selecting a gear as this is done by the crossgate mechanism and cable rather then the gearchange rod whose function is to put the car in gear once the gear has been selected. Happy Motoring! Jim'85TE