Quick shift kit fitting for diesel vans

[Nick G]

Hi, l bought a quick shift kit from just kampers after looking at the easy fitting pdf guide on their site. The instructions don’t state that the fitting for diesel is different. In started to fit it but fell at the first hurdle as my set up is nothing like the guide. Anyone know where l can find suitable instructions. I’ve had a search around and this question came up on the forum a few years back but didn’t get any replies.

[Stesaw]

I'd probably send an Email to Just Kampers to ask them. Petrol is different to Diesel if I recall due to the difference in the tunnel at the front.

[Aidan]

it's basically the same just that the turbo diesel set up is suspended under the floor due to the larger tunnel for the radiator. the top of the box underneath thetunnel is basically the floor in a petrol or non turbo diesel van, but you may have a protective draught excluder tube between the box and the bodywork which is in the way, so makes the whole job a lot more of an effort, dropping the box out completely and doing it on the bench would be my advice, disconnecting the linkage and taking the opportunity to service and or repair the guides and forks too, once done you shouldn't have to worry about it for a long time; five speed plungers need servicing and lube and boots renewing, and on both 4 and 5 speeds the nylon guides may need attending to as do the alloy blocks on the 5 speed and sometimes the alloy guide on the 4 speed, the two bushed for the bolt to the linkage at the bottom of the stick may also warrant replacing ime

[Nick G]

Thanks Aidan, much appreciated. I took a look underneath and found that the guides, forks, bellows whole plunger needs servicing so maybe it's just as well that fitting the short shifter wasn't just 'in the cab' as I would have missed the issues.
I assume that to remove the box I have to unbolt the wide metal 'strap'/bracket that is attached to the bottom of the box and the sides of the tunnel along with the four bolts attaching the top of the box? I would attached an image but can't figure out how to.
Anyhow thanks again for your advice.

[Aidan]

yes that's right the support bracket is additional on the TD and the studs in the floor above with nuts you access from below, hardest thing is working below feels upside down and holding things a lining up the nuts and bolts and washers when refitting whilst lying in the wheel carrier

[Nick G]

yes that's right the support bracket is additional on the TD and the studs in the floor above with nuts you access from below, hardest thing is working below feels upside down and holding things a lining up the nuts and bolts and washers when refitting whilst lying in the wheel carrier

It was a challenge getting the box out lying in the wheel carrier.
Finally got the parts needed for the quick shifter and the gearstick refurb kit along with a kit for the selector/plunger end of the gearstick. A bit of a faff getting the bellows back on securely. One thing I wanted to check. Having got all of the 'bits' out of the kits and having already stripped my old one down I had four springs. Two very obvious where they fit but two not so sure. I have refitted the plunger and bellows using the tapered (less strong) spring and used the not tapered (stronger) under the grub screwed collar on the gearstick. Is that correct or should it be the other way round? I don't want to fit it all back in the van if its wrong

[Nick G]

Successfully fitted the short/quick shift kit from Brikwerks to my 1988 Diesel. Also did a refurb thing on the gearstick etc.
I don't notice a great improvement in lever travel but it is better in most gears with the exception of reverse which is now really hard to find.
Anyone else experienced this? I'm wondering if I have fitted something incorrectly but can't work out what.
I'm actually thinking of taking the short/quick shift thing off as I think the changes were more positive before even though there was a lot of lever travel.

[jhax]

I have installed a short shift kit on my T3 with a JX motor and 3H 5 speed transmission. I know that the orientation of the gear selector housing is different on the diesels. As it currently is, the selector fork rests above the guides bolted on the bottom of the housing. Is this correct or should the forks be lower as they are in the original configuration?

Thank you,
Justin

[Aidan]

sounds right the short shift kit spaces the pivot ball up, thus away from the guides, maybe for a TD set up you need to add spacers for the guides too - don't quote me as I don't do diesel myself and haven't tried to fit a short shift to a TD - I had one on my petrol Syncro but broke the gearstick, so I wouldn't fit one now except to a solid shaft gearstick as the original seam welded gearstick isn't great at resisting stress fractures due to the material, and I suspect that in production the stick wasn't drilled for the grub screw, merely it was lightly stamped and the grub screw torqued in place, but supported by the collar fractures were not that frequent in usual service life (10 years 100k miles) but raising the collar up removes the support from the original grub screw depression and possible stress fracture, hence breakages which happened to others beside me 20 years ago

[jhax]

Cool, thank you!

[dcworm57]

I fitted the O25 Motorsport short shift kit to my 1.6 td westy. I also replaced all the bushes , guides , ball and socket at the gearbox end etc etc . I also changed the gearbox oil. It has all made a fantastic difference to gear selection.
Before I did the work it was  blooming hope less , very hard to get the gear you wanted and almost imp to find reverse . Changing the gearbox oil made a huge difference, I couldn’t believe how much better it was.

[muttleypup]

Forks should sit lower, same position as they were originally so they fit over the guides.  Have you re-positioned the retaining collar on the gearstick further up to take into account the spacer now installed at the base?  If repositioned correctly it should put the bottom of the stick in the correct position over the guides

[jhax]

By retaining collar do you mean the collar that the grub screw goes through? If that's the case I cannot remember.

[muttleypup]

Yes that's the one

[jhax]

Yeah it seems like I didnt include a spacer between the collar and the spring, but I uninstalled it anyway. The last thing I want to have happen is the gear lever snaps with my wife and kid in the bus. Thank you all for the assistance.

Justin