[DeTomaso] Cable Shifter

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/30/12 8 19 1, gow2 at rc-tech.net writes:


> Thanks Michael. The single action is not tough but the side to side is a
> little tricky. It really has to be done right to be viable.
> 

>>>I've driven several cable-shift GT40 replicas.   In each case, the 
system worked, sort of.   But it was always rather vague and never felt very 
positive.

The CEO of Superformance totalled his own GT40 when he blew a downshift 
coming off the freeway, going from 4th to 1st, locking up the back end, 
spinning it around and backing it into the wall.   It happened in the blink of an 
eye.   While the same thing could happen with a rod shift, you'd have to work 
much harder to achieve the same effect.

If you have no shift linkage at all, a cable shift could be a viable 
shortcut.   But given that you already have a superior system in your hands, 
downgrading to a cable shift would be just an exercise in engineering for its own 
sake, IMHO.   It's well within your capabilities to achieve, no doubt, but 
at the end of the day I think you'd be disappointed with the results.

BTW another engineering dead-end is replacing the heavy steel rods with 
carbon fiber.   CF twists torsionally, and side-to-side movement at the gear 
lever isn't properly transmitted back to the gearbox, so gear selection 
becomes difficult in the side gears.   However, replacing the steel solid rods 
with strong chromemoly tubing and modern U-joints would probably work.   The 
effort and expense involved probably wouldn't be justified, but as long as you 
selected the components properly, at least you wouldn't be going backwards 
(perhaps literally!) from an engineering/performance perspective.

Good luck!

Mike