Custom Cable Shift Options?

[Dave Lindemann]

My 2nd project car is a 1973 Lotus Europa TCS. The plan is to install a Toyota 4AGE 20V mated to a Renault NG-3 5-speed transaxle. I need a custom shift linkage. The stock linkage is a mutli-piece rod assembly that tends to get pretty sloppy over time. I'd like to go with a cable linkage due to the "Y" design of the rear chassis and associated challenges with running a rod assembly to the rear of the gearbox. I have an email into Cable-Shift but was wondering if others may have other sources they could suggest?

Thanks!
Dave L
RCR SL-C007
Lotus TCS

 

[Bill Musarra]

Dave,
There are several of us on the Forum with cable options. Randy for one altered a stock setup for a G-50 rather nicely. I have one that is for a 930 that is home made, and there are several for the ZF/Audi. Do a search and I am sure you will find some good examples. DRB(GT40 Autralia) does it on their cars that is a mix of rod and cable. It just takes some out of the box thinking to do what you want. If you just need pics I have a ton of pics. PM me with your email address and I will send you a bunch. Shifters are available that give direct action or reversed. If you go reversed and it is opposite, there are bell cranks that will help out. Easily made from scrap material. Just have to remember your 8th grade geometry.

Bill

 

[Charlie M]

California Motorsports makes a billet cable shift assembly that's a work of art. I'm sure it's not cheap though.

California Motorsports - Porsche transaxles, gears, differentials, parts and service

Charlie

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

Here are a couple of pics of the cable/rod shift setup on my DRB.

 

[Randy V]

Best of luck getting info from Brandwood / Cable-Shift. I was not able to when I tried and finally gave up and did it myself.

Bill's setup for the 930 is quite nice and worthy of consideration.

Mine can be seen here;
GT-FORTY.COM

I have higher resolution pictures if needed. You may also find some here that would be of help;

Transmission pictures by Big-F00T - Photobucket

 

[Dave Lindemann]

Thanks guys for all of the responses! Randy....wow, you really went through a lot to get the Brandwood Cable-Shift system to work. Actually, after everything you did it should probably be renamed the Randy-Shift. I sent Cable-Shift/Brandwood an email and he responded the next day. So, I was feeling pretty good until I read what you went through and their lack of responsiveness. It sounds like he wants me to send him the NG-3 which I'd rather not do.

Charlie you're right about CMS making works of art - I purchased my G50 from them and it "looks" great - but obviously haven't had a chance to use it yet. From everything I've seen they do good work.

I can see that this may not be an easy issue to resolve given my limited mechanical abilities. I've attached three pictures of what another Lotus owner has done and one of the rear of the NG-3 showing the shift levers. While I'm sure his system works fine I'd prefer to have the cable mount points on the transaxle rather than the chassis. I'm concerned that movement of the drivetrain in relationship to the chassis could impact the adjustment of the shifter - though I imagine the amount of movement would have to be pretty severe before things would get out of wack.

Dave

 

[Bill Musarra]

Dave,
What you have is basically a bell crank with a large multiplication factor. That is what I used with mine. It doesn't need to be so large though. I 'm having a hard time figuring out which is the neutral gate and the gear selector. My guess is the bottom one is for the gears. I wouldn't worry about the frame mount for the cable attachments. That trans is not going anywhere, if yours is anything like the pics. Even if it is bushed with polys it won't move enough to worry about. I did some 8th grade geometry and ploted out the distance(arc lenght) that the neutral gate had to travel and then figured out how far I wanted the neutral gate to travel. Then it was a matter of setting up the bell crank and letting it do its thing at different distances, sizes,and angles. Plotting it out on graph paper allowed me to set it the way it felt right to me. I can supply the dimensions you might need. My shifter is a Toyota Corolla 78-80 and there may be other years and models that used it. It is a reverse action shifter(shift forward and the mechanism pushes the cable to the rear). On my build site DRB#5
http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-build-logs/13742-drb-5-a-4.html
Look to the bottom of the page post #77
I outlined it pretty well. Lots of pics of the mechanism and mounting brackets that I fabed up. It appears you have a lot of extra room compared to a 40 to work with. So aligning it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I had to work around two coolers, a remote oil filter, an accusump, and a Moroso trans pump with spray bars and all of the associated tubes for those pieces. If it looks like somethig you want to explore more, drop me a PM

Bill

 

[Dave Lindemann]

Thanks Bill -

One of my local Lotus friends has the NG-3 Manual and drawings and pictures of a more engineered cable shift arrangement than the one in the pictures I posted. I think I'm on track to getting this figured out.

Thank you all for you input - much appreciated!

Dave L