Shifter Cable Drag

I like many others have shifter cables sourced through CableShift, some have his shifter mechanism and some have the FORD GT shifter (as do I). I had advised Jim in the past that the side to side motion was very heavy (will not return to center on its own) and the fore/aft had noticeable drag as well. He does not make the cables, he orders them from various suppliers to spec, had no explanation and we put it down as "that's the way it's going to be". Others have commented to me they had the same experience, I just happened to have the assembly out of the car and tried a few experiments, turns out ALL of the drag comes from these brown seals, if you pop them off NO drag at all in the cables. I was told the cables come all ready to go no lubricant/additional lubricant (?) needed. My cables have none in them as far as I can tell.

Jim has been very helpful in all our dealings and I will ask his opinion on this after the holidays but, I wanted to get the information out there while I had time to write. Hope it will be of some use.

What lube would be the best for cables? I have seen most shifter cables greased in the past but don't know the preferred products.

Thanks
 

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Fran Hall RCR

GT40s Sponsor
Graphite lube works best we have found.

I do not recommend removing the rubber dirt seal...especially on the engine bay end......once you have actually used/driven the car and shifted a few times the cables will have a more fluid action ....the "drag" is nothing to be concerned about in the real world when driving...
 
Fran,
I will not be removing them as the "cure", although I understand why you said that. To be clear in my case at least, the side to side motion is very heavy and will def detract from the quality of the shifting. I had taken extra measure to insure smooth cable routing through the chassis and was very surprised at the stiffness in the end. I imagine in this instance the proper lubricant will fix the problem pronto, no probelma.

Thanks for the recommendation.
 

Fran Hall RCR

GT40s Sponsor
Interesting ....that's not something I have ever had an issue with...

I have a couple of OEM GT/Ricardo shifters on the shelf and ran one in my own SLC without that problem...so it will be worth a look to see if there are any other issues...
 
Actually, I think it is purely the seal drag and frankly I was surprised how much effect the seemingly small amount seal drag (once seals were removed) had at the shifter lever end of things. I don't think it has anything to do with the shifter itself - once I removed the seals, end of problem. Lube should also end the problem, I hope. I don't need any other incidental issues, I create enough on my own (LOL).

Of course it the shifter assy is sitting on the floor right now, all will tell once I get it hooked up again.

Cheers, happy new year to ya.
 
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For what it's worth (free advise) when I shift my car, and it's not running or 1st 10 miles or so, the shifting is "clunky" as in not smooth and the shift handle does not feel that "fluid".. moves back to neutral gate slowly. The trans/shifter after warm up shifts like butter. Not as much an issue when the temps are 75 plus and summertime. I have the RCR supplied shifter & G96.50
 
On the Lotus I have played with they have a telescoping rubber boot that goes over it. What if we just used that instead to keep the dust and grime and grit out. I have not put my car together yet, but I noticed the friction as well.

Maybe something like in this picture. Someone should be able to source those pretty easy I would think.
Tranny004shift3.jpg
 
Update: I got back to a place where the cables were connected back in the car, this allowed assessment of the lube solution. I popped the brown caps off the end of the cables, applied white grease and replaced (sorry for poor picture). The drag was greatly reduced, I then hooked them back up to the trans, the for aft motion is now buttery smooth, the side to side still took some effort with slow-return-to-center reduced but still present. I am thinking trans temp or lack of use may be a factor here as the cables have very little drag now.
 

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This may sound crazy but what I did is hose clamped a 5/8 heater hose about 12inches long on the end of the cable and poured 0w20 oil in the end and the screwed a fitting on the hose and hooked up a grease gun and forced the oil in the cable. It really worked well for me.
 
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