GSF sell the linkage repair kit:
71709C GEAR LINKAGE REPAIR KIT £5.75 + VAT
This is what you'll receive:
1x big red bush (in the large bracket that holds the gearlever shaft)
4x hard plastic bushes (only 2 needed, for bracket bolted to the gearbox)
2x big clear soft rubbery bushes (for the relay shaft)
2x small white soft rubbery bushes (for the ends of the shift rod)
2x rivets (un-needed, used for the red bush housing but no need to drill out old ones)
4x soft foamy washers (used on the short & long link rod ball joints)
Its also worth buying an uprated relay shaft bush from:
http://www.iol.ie/~locoblade/bushes.htmlWill improve the forward back feel a great deal
Ok pop the bonnet and this is what you'll see, note I've already fitted the weighted shift rod:
Remove the header tank and place it out of the way, this gives you loads of room to work in. Pre 90 spec ones are just slotted into the bracket, 90 spec ones are held on with 2 bolts/studs under the black plastic trim bit. Don't forget to disconnect the level sensor if one is fitted!
The short & long rods with the plastic end caps have little clips to clamp the ends,
carefully unclip these, I snapped one off and had to make an emergency visit to the scrappy! Both rods should then pop off with a little persuasion.
Lever the spring clips out of the metal shift rod and remove, make sure these don't ping off & disappear!
Undo the 13mm nut on top of the relay shaft, and remove the large metal arm.
Loosen the 13mm pinch nut & bolt on the clamp on the gearlever shaft bracket, until it can be removed (you might want to mark its position but Chances are the alignment will be out after refitting all the bushes anyway!)
Remove the 3 13mm bolts holding the relay shaft bracket to the steering rack, and remove. This is tricky, you have to wiggle the bracket about whilst holding the gearlever shaft as far back as it will go, there is only just enough clearance!
Your engine bay will now look like this (note 2 of the gearbox linkage bracket bolts are circled):
Now you have 2 choices, either remove the bracket bolted to the gearbox, or just unbolt the lever from the bracket. If you wish to change the gearbox it would be a good plan to do it at the same time as the only way to do it is to remove the linkage bracket. It also makes it easier to fit the replacement bushes and refit the lever, plus you can clean it up nice
To remove the bracket:
Undo the large bolt through the middle of the gearbox mount.
Jack the gearbox up as far as possible, go slowly as the clutch arm will hit the inner wing.
Remove the bolts holding the linkage to the gearbox and it should slide out nicely
If you want to replace the gearbox mount, there are 2 smaller bolts holding the gearbox mount in the subframe, remove these and you'll have JUST enough clearance to remove it and swap in the new one.
To remove the lever from the bracket:
Simply remove the 13mm nut & bolt and the lever will slide off
Ok now you'll have a pile of linkage bits on your workbench, after cleaning em up with a wire brush you'll have something like this:
(notice I forgot to put the small plastic linkage and the lever mentioned above in the pic)
It should now be pretty obvious which bushes go where, if you are unsure I've listed the locations above. The tricky one is the big red bush but it is possible to rip the old one out and fit the replacement without drilling out the rivets, put it in a tub of warm water first to make it a wee bit more flexible. Then as the red book says, re-assembly is the reverse of removal, make sure you grease up the moving parts while you put it all back together
Now to set up the alignment, dave2227 sells the alignment tool to make the job easy:
But being a tight Northerner I just used an old cassette tape held in the gap between the reverse gate & lockout lever with duck tape! Make sure you do the pinch bolt up tight, I made the mistake (twice!!) of not doing it up enough and lost all my gears a day or so afterwards as a result
Job done:
