A-525 Heim Joint Adjustment, question

[Marcus86GLHS]

here's the heim joint assembly for my a-525 just prior to installation, pretty much exactly as it would look once installed......the top of picture would be front of vehicle once installed:



got the parts in alright but i am having trouble with engaging reverse, and, the 2-3 shift is very notchy and difficult to engage also. no way i'm gonna be able to shift fast as it is right now. i was hoping someone with experience with these parts in the a-525 could help me trouble-shoot.

there are (2) rods shown above, a forward rod (higher in the pix) and the aft rod (lower in pix). prior to installing the assembly i adjusted the heim-joints to make each of these rods the exact same length as the stock rods they replaced, as exact as possible.

i am wondering: if reverse is hard to engage (i have to ram the shifter all my might to the left as i press down if i dont jam the shifter real hard to the left it will not engage reverse), and 2-3 is also hard and clunky...i can get all 5 gears + reverse engaged, but reverse and 2-3 are not acceptable smoothness at all.

could it be that the aft rod is too short? or, is it something else?

thanx for the assist.

[mwadams]

my only suggestion is to measure the stock linkage (if you still have them). Or maybe a kind person on the board can measure them and give you specs.
Did you make them yourself? Looks like a pretty nice setup.

Mark

[Marcus86GLHS]

Mark the 1st thing i did was remove all the factory stock parts and then adjust each heim joint rod end so the the length (distance joint-to-joint) of the new pieces were within 1/32 of an inch of the factory parts i removed. so, i am starting out with these new linkages the exact same length as the ones they replaced.

i suspect that, due to the tighter joints there needs to be a rod length adjustment (longer or shorter than stock parts).

S. Mullikan did these linkages for me, he does great work.

does anyone know what the function of the left-hand bellcrank is? (shown above on the left side of the pix). it has a tongue that rests on a hard rubber ball, the ball is attatched to the shifter tongue (the bent piece in the far left corner of the above pix).

i think my prob rests with the functioning of this left-hand bellcrank.....the aft rod might be too short lessening the angular movement of the left bellcrank.......but i might 100% wrong on this......any trany experts out there?

[86Shelby]

That bellcrank moves the shifter assembly in and out. All the way in is in line with reverse and all the way out is in line with 5th.

I was thinking the same thing with that portion possibly binding a little. Is the shifter itself adjusted properly? Also, double check to make sure the linkage isn't running into something like the trans case, a hose or wire holding it up, etc. It shouldn't but it can happen.

When you measured the stock linkage and adjusted the rods did you measure them end to end, center to center, inside edge of the plastic ball? If you measured wrong it could cause some problems. The measurement should be taken center to center.

[Marcus86GLHS]

86SHELBY thanx for help!.....ok, the new rods were set center-to-center and i was very precise i actually made a little jig that used a pin that went thru the new rod ands and into the old plastic cups so the center to centers were maintained.

there's no binding underneath that was 1st thing i verified. shifter location is adjusted per factory instructions by using the alignment detents on the bottom of the shifter housing under the car, thats the easiet part of the process.

as for which bellcrank moves the gear-select arm, wouldnt that would be the right-hand bellcrank not the left one? ...i dont think its the left-hand one (drivers-side) cause the left-hand one actually does not attach to the gear select arm!!....it has a c-shaped tongue that only rests on top of a rubber ball, the ball is bolted to the gear select arm.....the right bellcrank is not physically connected to the ball at all so if you move the left-bellcrank on its own on the bench that doesnt move the shift select arm, it cant.

my theory: the right-hand (passenger side) bellcrank moves the gear-select arm, and the left-hand bellcrank provides a "stop", to assist the other bellcrank (ie: the c-tongue prevents the rubber ball from moving to far).

this is only my theory i am only a newbie on these linkages and how they work thats what is so frustrating......frikin dodges.