Gear shift bearing pin bracket repair CU

[neil3965]

An old repair (several previous owners ago) of the bracket that holds the bearing pin for the rear end of the gearshift rod fell off during a trip to Yorkshire. Made it to a campsite using 2nd gear only, fearing an expensive truck ride home and/or even more expensive gearbox replacement.

But had a think overnight and decided that I could fabricate a repair if I could get home. Had another think, and made it home the 270 miles from Helmsley in Yorkshire with the help of a big screwdriver lashed to the side of the gearbox -



Was pleasantly surprised that this bodge actually worked - could select all five gears no problem!

Anyway, now thinking about a permanent repair. Going to try fabricating a piece from thick aluminium plate, and using a combination of a casing bolt and JB Weld to fix it to the gearbox case.

I would be hugely obliged if anyone who might have a suitable gearbox (Aircooled 1982 4-speed manual) in their workshop or yard could either take a photo of the box nose on, with a ruler or tape measure in the pic; or take accurate measurements from the centres of two of the casing bolts to the centre of the hole for the mounting pin, so i can get the hole for the new pin in the right place relative to the case.

If anyone has made a similar repair in the past, any advice gratefully received!

[toolsntat]

Just so happens there is one in the kitchen at the moment
Will measure later
Top makeshift repair
Andy

[toolsntat]

Ok these are the measurements for you.
Middle of hole to middle of bolt.
Nearest bolt 44mm
2nd nearest (above) 87mm
3rd nearest (bottom) 100mm

Only measured with opened dividers to hole/bolt ctrs but hope this helps

Andy

[neil3965]

Thanks Andy, you're an absolute star! If we meet on the road, I owe you a pint.

Will let you know how the repair goes.

[neil3965]

Back on the road in Yorkshire after making a useable repair to the shift rod bearing pin bracket...

This was the old repair, which had been on the van since before the previous owner, so at least 15 years:





Looks like steel plate and strip brazed together around steel tube, space filled with epoxy resin?

It had seemed sound enough last time I worked on the gear shift. When it finally fell off last week, this was left:



When I removed the bolted on plate and smoothed off the stump of the broken bracket with a grinder, I saw this:



Looks like a lot of metal came off the case when the bracket got broken. No idea what happened, whether the gearbox was dropped, or was hit by a rock while driving offroad... The grey stuff between the shiny metal bits was crumbly in places - old epoxy?

Anyway, I got some 4mm ally plate and two bits of 12mm plate and managed to mark the position of the hole for the bearing pin using the measurements supplied by Andy (thanks again!), then cut and ground it all down to size.



The 4mm plate is held by the casing bolt, the rest is held together and to the case by JB Weld. New bearing pin and rubber boot from Brickwerks (the nut is M12 x 1.5).





It's working fine just now, but I plan to strengthen it by adding a short length of 16mm (13mm ID) steel tube tack-welded to an M12 nut, and screwed onto the bearing pin, then attached to a second bracket further back. Should help it to stand up better to fore-and-aft and sideways stresses.

The alternative, of course, is to get a new gearbox, but that seems like madly expensive overkill, especially seeing how the gearbox itself is absolutely fine. I thought about looking for a knackered box, and replacing the part of the case (gear carrier?) with the bearing pin bracket on it, but it looks like you have to perform a complete disassembly and reassembly of the gearbox to do that, special tools and all, and I reckon that's probably beyond my mechanical resources.

Anyway, at least the old girl is working for now!