Thanks guys for the advice. Gonna source the rod ends for sure.
Just checked the play and found the biggest endplay is in the big bolt holding down the triangle lever to the square block. The trick is too tighten it such that it will not bind the triangle but give no play in the setup...this is a thin line...and it looks to untighten itself after some usage. Will need some lock-tide I guess. Don't like this kind of solutions.
On the long term, I gonna redesign this bit (fun challenge by putting it in 3D to analyze the movements).
It starts with the shifter and its rotational hinge, funny and in one way clever design but the rotational movement there must be transferred to the rear and if on the rear, the geometry is off, the rotation movement will not translate properly in the lineair motion on the shaft going into the gearbox. Noticed that the small rod holding the triangle at the rear is influencing the amount of angle of the shifter which can be used. The way it was setup was that the shifter could only use half of its rotation. Corrected this. Now the shifter can move also to the right half of its operation. This gives much more control on the rotational movement and by this much more lineair translation on the shaft going into the gearbox.
At least with the engine not running, I am able to select all gears without any issue. Need another test run soon to see how it works on the road. At least I started to understand the idea of the designer :laugh:
And this forum also helps to see other ideas being used. Some ideas split the rotational and linear translation operated by one cable. Makes it much easier to understand what it does and by this, easier to adjust. But it would mean to redesign also the shifter mechanism. I feel a challenge upcoming.
I prefer this clamping from a Lotus Esprit.
Need to find out whether the diameter of the shaft is the same as on the UN1. Perhaps this part is a better starting point.