Bodge of today post.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Today I started a pretty straight forwards job on the Superdream - taking off the two footrests in readiness for eventual engine removal.

Right side footrest bolts sprayed with suitable penetrating oil, fitted socket, slight tap with fancy hammer, bolt removed in under a minute.

Left side is slightly different as the fixing bolt has the gear lever shaft integrated into the bolt end. Sprayed with penetrating oil, found my circlip pliers and removed the circlip & washer. Undid bolt on the gearbox shaft end of the linkage.

Unable to pull the gear lever itself from the shaft even though the circlip was out, sprayed some more oil onto shaft end.
I noticed that as you rotated the lever it became tight except in the horizontal position. lots of head scratching, checked the manual - no hidden retaining screw.

Tried a sort of wedge with a large screwdrive behind  the lever - it would not pull out any further becoming jammed solid.
Must be a bent shaft I thought then I noticed what looked like a woodruff key between the shaft & gear lever. It took some force with a lump hammer to knock the gear lever back where it was. Tried to pick out the metal I could see without success.

Open ended spanner was then used to undo the whole arrangement one flat at a time having to move the gear lever each time as it started to jam. Whole thing removed with the gearshift attached. In my vice I was able to put a drift into the centre and knock out the shaft from the lever.

Not a bent shaft just some wear that some PO fixed by hammering in what looks like a bent bit of spring metal to take up the slack. Said bit of metal had wedged into the centre recess to make removal a 20 minute job instead of two minutes.

Said bit of bodgery is in the photo.

gearshift bodge by Macabe Thiele, on Flickr
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[Bryanj]

That is bodgery to extremes Ted

[AshimotoK0]

That is bodgery to extremes Ted

Yes agree ... makes me a bit concerned about what else you may encounter Ted. Sure you will resolve it all though.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

It looks as if after the long term owner Andrew Redman sold it on sometime after Feb 2022, the last invoice for parts from Germany is in his name - £143.77 Euros for used carbs.

It's moved from Wellingborough to the Leicester area, it's a shame that DVLA don't generally provide ownership history any more, I tried & failed with my 400.

I've  no idea how many owners it's had in the last two years Ash,might point to the bits of bodgery up until the chap I bought it from who only owned it for about a month.

Looking at the dirt, cobwebs & lack of mileage increase in those two years its not done much except been kept in the dry. The engine oil was reasonably clean.

Interestingly in the box of bits are the lower half of a pair of carbs and a gear lever.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

That is bodgery to extremes Ted

PTFE tape would have been an improvement.

[Johnny4428]

😳😳 can’t think that would have been swivelling very smoothly with that jammed in there Ted. Is it the swivel bolt that is worn or is it the gear lever?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

It's a bit of both, the pivot has a visible wear grove from what was the top point, oddly enough the gear lever hole part seems to have a more even amount of wear, a bit of both in reality.

I'll pop a photo up tomorrow of the wear groove, it'spartly visible near the circlip groove.

[Orcade-Ian]

Looks like both are worn Johnny,
Ted, do you have access to a lathe or a mate nearby with one?  As the worn end is only supporting the gearlever, I would turn it down to clean it up but leave the circlip groove and perhaps open the hole out a tad in the lever and press in a custom made bronze bush.  Give me a shout if you get stuck.

Ian

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Thanks for the offer Ian, I might take you up on it in the not too distant future, the boss on the gear lever is quite substantial so fitting a bush looks doable.

I spoke to Ken today who talked about a bush option as well as telling me about some new (NOS) levers that were up for sale on e-bay at pretty high prices including postage from the US or Germany.

The only two blokes  I knew with machining skills with a lathe of their own have kicked the proverbial bucket over a decade ago. With Rolls Royce being in Derby there used to be an abundance of  decent local machine shops that have have gradually gone.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

If you zoom in on the earlier photo you can see the wear shoulder a few mm from the circlip groove.

[Johnny4428]

I noticed that indeed Ted, quite a bit of metal gone from that.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Probably never seen any grease since it left the factory 44 years ago.

[K2-K6]

This type brazing rod https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176271717134 would be suitable for filling the wear point.

Then refinishing by hand file to leave original diameter with hard wearing surface.

Needs flux and gas torch to work with it. Anyone locally welding with oxy-acetalyne kit should be able to lay that on in a couple of minutes.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

That's interesting Nigel, I have a plumbers type Butane Gas Torch, I had briefly considered solder that would be far too soft.