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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Ford 5 Speed Short Gear Shift

I am currently fabricating a stainless gear lever for the Type 9 gear box I am fiting to the Spridget. It would be quite easy to lift the pivot ball by about 10 m/m and make up a spacer for the cover plate to create a short shift, similar to the ones advertised. However the standard Ford gear lever is about 140m/m longer than the Spridget one. I wonder if a shorter lever and reduced throw would make gear selection difficult. Is a 10m/m raise of the pivot the correct amount.

Jan T
J Targosz

The ford one that came with my T9 had a rubber damper joint part way up the lever. I dismantled that joint, tapped a thread onto the lower part and fitted a standard Sprite gear knob directly onto that. It resulted in a very short lever, with the gear knob nestled into the top of a leather gaiter on the transmission tunnel - a bit like on a tvr chimaera.
Gear selection was great, very precise and a bit like operating a switch.

I had that for 15 years always with the intention of lengthening the gear stick but only got round to doing so very recently, because I rather liked it!
GuyW

Similarly, on several Fords I owned with T9 boxes (4 and 5 speed) I purposely sawed several inches off the shift levers, turned a suitable thread on them and shortened them in that way.
It always resulted in a short-throw action and the T9 is such a good box it never had any detrimental effect on selection.
Improved it every time in fact.
HTH.
Greybeard

http://dvandrews.co.uk/quick.htm

I did this. Makes the change very fast with a shortened lever. You'll get the wrong gear a lot till you're used to it
Rob Armstrong

I am going to leave the pivot point alone but fabricate a leaver the same length as the original Spridget one. With the shortened rear housing the lever will look Spridget standard.

Re the shortening of the the housing I think Ford used sweepings from the foundry floor as the casting material. It was almost impossible to weld neatly.

After shortening, all gears apart from reverse selected crisply. After looking at the bottom of the leaver, though the oval hole at the rear, I could see the fork on the lever was catching on the steel slider on the LHS. Eventually I realised the three bolts holding the leaver plate to the ali casting were finger tight. They need to be locked down for a clean selection of reverse.


Jan T
J Targosz

I have noted an inexpensive quick shift for sale on eBay. After a bit of searching it appears that aftermarket kiits based on a rose joint are very noisy. Is this due to the joint being rigid or the removal of the rubber bush from the lever.

Jan T
J Targosz

Jan, I've got one on my t9. Yes it does vibrate. It is noisy, you get used to it. I'll search my laptop for a picture later.

Actually, I was going to sell it, because I wasn't using it, but before doing so I installed it to see what it was like. And it's been on there ever since ( 4 or 5 plus years).

Personally I really don't think it offers anything over simply shortening the lever. I just haven't gotten around to putting the original Ford stick back in.
anamnesis

This is the quick shift I've got. I've cut the length down though.


anamnesis

Hi Anam,

When I converted by MG TF to 5 speeds I cut the original lever below the rubber joint and bolted a 4" length of 3/4"x 3/16" steel bar to one end of this and a new lever to the other end. I have seen many pics of this conversion. I found that when you move the new lever across the gate it has a tendency to rotate the stub of the old lever. Additionally when pressing the lever down for reverse it pulled the stub rearwards. The selection was never as good as the original set up. Thatt's why I have gone to the trouble of shortening the casting and rail.

Jan T
J Targosz

It's so long since I had the original Ford lever on, I've forgotten how it felt to be honest Jan.

I removed the bit above the rubber on the original Ford stick too, and I can't remember having any particular problem with selection after doing that. But I'll pay attention to what you've just said about how it behaves when I put mine back in.
anamnesis

Heir and a spare.

This is how I shortened the original. And I have a removable extension.


anamnesis

Hi Anam,

I have produced a prototype lever using a broken original one. You will see in the pic that I have joined the old and new levers under the rubber boot. If you remove the plastic ball there is enough meat to grip the stub of the original leaver in a three jaw and turn down to 10m/m and cut a thread. The new leaver under the boot is 14m/m so I could cut a 10m/m female thread to match the stub. I have left a larger diameter collar to compress the rubber boot and this is actually adjustable by screwing the stub and the new lever into or out of each other and taking up slack with washers. It also enanble you to move the pivot up if desired. I have tried it in the box and it works a treat. I am now going to turn one up from stainless.

You will note from the pic of the underside that part of the ball seating is broken but I do have another for the final creation. Of interest though are the two circular pegs on the plastic ball. These support the leaver front to back and stop it rotating. I haven't seen one of the rose jointed after market levers but do know about rose joints and cann't see how with one rotation of the lever can be prevented. I suspect that the original set up, with a good condition, round pegged plastic ball joint would give better precision, even if the ball was raised to shorten the throw.


Cheers

Jan







J Targosz

Nice looking job there Jan.
anamnesis

This thread was discussed between 30/08/2023 and 14/09/2023

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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