• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

/7 Shift Lever

dougjordan

New member
Anybody have experience replacing the shift lever. Mine is pretty sloppy so replacing. It is the older style without roller bearing, so is there anything keeping me from boring the lever out to take the bearing and replacing the mounting stud.
 
Are you talking about the actual lever that your foot touches or are you talking about the connection between the foot lever and the lever on the transmission? I was just reading a post by Tom Cutter on the Airhead list last February...and I've heard him say this at a tech seminar...the /7 style with the rubber boot, u-shaped rod, and clips. He says that if this rod bends, it results in loss shift travel and puts extra stress on the shift dogs, forks, and gears. He says the later heim joint is a much better setup with a firmer shift.
 
I replaced mine on my /7 a few years ago with a heel/toe shifter that I got a deal on and was in better shape (plus I like the HT shifters). I also went to the hardware store (or maybe the Home Despot...) and bought a length of rod to make a new linkage that was a slightly different length from the original in order to get the lever in the position that I wanted and best fit my special combo of Fred Flintstone legs/Crusty the Clown feet. In any event, part of my intent was to replace the sloppy lever which had ovaled out over the years. Just replacing it with the lightly used one (even though it is not the needle bearing type) was a major improvement and I expect it will last many years. If you find a good used lever cheap, that may be an alternate solution. You might even find one with the later heim joint equipped linkage that Kurt referenced inexpensively on IBMWR or one of the salvage places.

To answer your question, yes, I think you could bore the pivot opening on your lever to accept the bearing. There is plenty of material to work with there. I would have a machinist do the work with the needle bearing in hand. But if you want to go that route, you might consider just buying a brand new lever that comes with the bearing- they are about $60, and it's essentially a lifetime repair. By the time you purchase the bearing and pivot pin, and pay a machinist, you'll have spent almost that much anyway...
:beer
 
Last edited:
Back
Top