| Re: Norfolk Tornado
Thanks for the words of encouragement guys. I thought that next I’d have a go at designing my own gearshift mechanism. Based on what I’ve gleamed from this & other sites, this is what I’ve come up with.
The first thing was to turn up a new selector shaft, so that I’d have it coming out of the correct side of the transmission. This was made from 302 grade stainless steel, so I didn’t have any corrosion issues around the seal.
The rest of the rod-shift mechanism is made from 14mm stainless bar with a couple of UJ’s from RS (these will be in rubber boots when finished) and the rose joints are phosphor-bronze lined, so should be pretty durable. The bushes in the support tube are made from a high temperature dry-lube bearing material, so should be OK under the exhaust silencers.
The trial shown on the board was to ensure that the shift-through was acceptable before I started welding fixings to the chassis.
Shift quality feels pretty good and the shift load seems acceptable, but the gearlever may have to be trimmed for length to give a slightly shorter throw.
Regards
Andy
NB: I’ve been asked to clarify one point, the bell housing is a scrap part, suitable for mock-up only, supplied by Chris Cole. The parts he currently supplies has different features to the one in the previous photo and do not contravene any Tornado copyright |