Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

[listerjp2]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Yup it was me, hee hee.

Anyway I would be interested, any chance of some photos?

Adrian

[andyf]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Or why not just bend it so that it clears the dash? I actually extended the gear stick for the Sunbeam to point it towards the driver and get it closer to the steering wheel.

[listerjp2]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

just thought it would be nice not to have the throw between gears.

All good ideas and thank you one and all.

Adrian

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

the problem with the original marina box (and no, having four gears isn't a problem - that's how they were back in the day ) is the proximity of the bent lever to the handbrake and the bloomin' difficulty of getting reverse (up and right) without injury. These reasons may be sufficient alone to swap to a Type 9 (if you can get one at reasonable cost nowadays) but surely it cant be beyond the wit of the combined brains of the greatest car club in the world (or failing that...us!) to come up with a perfect solution. Anyone remember the old 850cc minis with the long gear lever - well that's not far off how it feels at times. who has done what and what works - what would you improve?

[FranklinLeicester]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Bending the original stick doesn't work because of the limited distance between the tunnel and the wiring behind the dash. Even if you did, it would look weird. Replacing with a type 9 box is fine if you really want the extra gear but the cost and hassle reminds me of the tale of the wealthy Arab who changed his Mercedes because the ash tray was full. Seriously, this is relatively easy and if this tale rings any bells check out Pitstop Feb/March for full details with pic. Adrian, read that then e.mail or phone me if you want to take it further and I'll talk you through anything that is not clear. My details are in the mag under the SEMS heading. Franklin.

[stevejgreen]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Bending the original stick doesn't work because of the limited distance between the tunnel and the wiring behind the dash. Even if you did, it would look weird. Replacing with a type 9 box is fine if you really want the extra gear but the cost and hassle reminds me of the tale of the wealthy Arab who changed his Mercedes because the ash tray was full. Seriously, this is relatively easy and if this tale rings any bells check out Pitstop Feb/March for full details with pic. Adrian, read that then e.mail or phone me if you want to take it further and I'll talk you through anything that is not clear. My details are in the mag under the SEMS heading. Franklin.

The copy of Pitstop referenced is in fact Issue 197 December 2013 / January 2014

Here or there

[listerjp2]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Hi just one question, does reverse work ok?

Adrian

Bending the original stick doesn't work because of the limited distance between the tunnel and the wiring behind the dash. Even if you did, it would look weird. Replacing with a type 9 box is fine if you really want the extra gear but the cost and hassle reminds me of the tale of the wealthy Arab who changed his Mercedes because the ash tray was full. Seriously, this is relatively easy and if this tale rings any bells check out Pitstop Feb/March for full details with pic. Adrian, read that then e.mail or phone me if you want to take it further and I'll talk you through anything that is not clear. My details are in the mag under the SEMS heading. Franklin.

[cameronfurnival]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Pitstop article Copied here...

Gear lever
It's taken me thirteen years to get round to doing a mod I promised to do when I took the first test drive – make a better shaped gear lever.
Many Marlins and other kit cars suffer from dodgy gear levers, they have the annoying habit of gear knob and hand brake clouting each other. Mine only occurred when the hand brake was applied but it struck me as odd when there was ample scope to get it right in the first place. My car has a 1275cc Marina engine which being fairly short means that the gear lever is tucked quite a long way forward compared with the ideal position of poking up vertically from the tunnel by ones left thigh. If I employed a vertical lever it would be way under the dash causing the back of the hand to foul a maze of wires and an awkward forward lean. So what I needed was a lever about twelve inches long pitched at an angle of about 45 degrees. Also, it would need to be cranked slightly to the left to avoid the brake lever.Having bought a 12 inch length of 7/16” steel rod I then needed a spare Marina lever to monkey around with. Two fellow members came up with the goods and I set about them with a hacksaw. The Marina lever is dead easy to fit and take off as it is just a push and twist job, rather like fitting a domestic light bulb. I cut most of the lever off and clamped a piece of wire coat hanger to the remaining root which I bent and cut to the desired shape.


I left the job for a day or two and forgot about it until I wanted to use the car when I remembered the half done job. Rather than get grubby refitting the old one I clamped a mole grip to the stub and got on with it. In fact it was in the car for a couple of weeks and did a grand job. At this time the rubber boot was not in and I was amazed at the amount of hot air that wafted up into the car.


Having established the ideal shape and length, I clamped the 7/16th rod in the vice and bent it with the aid of a high pressure blowlamp and big hammer to the shape of the wire pattern. I then drilled through the Marina lever which has a rubber vibration cushion cast into it (sad indictment on British Leyland engineering).This caused a burning rubber pong but didn't do any harm. Having hammered the rod through the hole I put a couple of dabs of weld on to finish the job. I had to do quick dabs with the arc welder and plunge it into water to avoid burning more rubber. A bonus to this job which was a nice surprise was that the “new” lever has a much nicer feel, almost like a new car so I suppose the ball at the base of the lever was hardly warn whereas my old one was dead sloppy.

knob.JPG

[listerjp2]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Hi Cameron

Thanks, as you can see the reason I have asked about reverse?

Pitstop article Copied here...

Gear lever
It's taken me thirteen years to get round to doing a mod I promised to do when I took the first test drive – make a better shaped gear lever.
Many Marlins and other kit cars suffer from dodgy gear levers, they have the annoying habit of gear knob and hand brake clouting each other. Mine only occurred when the hand brake was applied but it struck me as odd when there was ample scope to get it right in the first place. My car has a 1275cc Marina engine which being fairly short means that the gear lever is tucked quite a long way forward compared with the ideal position of poking up vertically from the tunnel by ones left thigh. If I employed a vertical lever it would be way under the dash causing the back of the hand to foul a maze of wires and an awkward forward lean. So what I needed was a lever about twelve inches long pitched at an angle of about 45 degrees. Also, it would need to be cranked slightly to the left to avoid the brake lever.Having bought a 12 inch length of 7/16” steel rod I then needed a spare Marina lever to monkey around with. Two fellow members came up with the goods and I set about them with a hacksaw. The Marina lever is dead easy to fit and take off as it is just a push and twist job, rather like fitting a domestic light bulb. I cut most of the lever off and clamped a piece of wire coat hanger to the remaining root which I bent and cut to the desired shape.


I left the job for a day or two and forgot about it until I wanted to use the car when I remembered the half done job. Rather than get grubby refitting the old one I clamped a mole grip to the stub and got on with it. In fact it was in the car for a couple of weeks and did a grand job. At this time the rubber boot was not in and I was amazed at the amount of hot air that wafted up into the car.


Having established the ideal shape and length, I clamped the 7/16th rod in the vice and bent it with the aid of a high pressure blowlamp and big hammer to the shape of the wire pattern. I then drilled through the Marina lever which has a rubber vibration cushion cast into it (sad indictment on British Leyland engineering).This caused a burning rubber pong but didn't do any harm. Having hammered the rod through the hole I put a couple of dabs of weld on to finish the job. I had to do quick dabs with the arc welder and plunge it into water to avoid burning more rubber. A bonus to this job which was a nice surprise was that the “new” lever has a much nicer feel, almost like a new car so I suppose the ball at the base of the lever was hardly warn whereas my old one was dead sloppy.

[ATTACH]5759[/ATTACH]

[stevejgreen]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Pitstop article Copied here...

Gear lever
I suppose the ball at the base of the lever was hardly warn whereas my old one was dead sloppy.

Worth checking before you start cutting and welding a gear lever, and its associated mechanism, that may be in a worse condition than the existing, as I suggested in a earlier post.

[FranklinLeicester]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

Thanks Steve for correcting my dodgy memory and Cameron for posting it on the forum. Adrian, you ask about reverse, prior to the modification reverse was the worst offender but with the new lever there is no problem. This is due to tweaking the coat hanger wire dummy lever to get an optimum shape and position to accommodate all gears. Even if you get it slightly wrong you could still re-heat it and bend as you wish. I notice that when the photos were taken I had not fitted my black "snooker ball" knob. Looking back through the thread I had missed the pic of the Mini lever. If I had known such a thing existed I would have checked it out, it looks great and chrome too. It may not fit our cars at the ball end plus you may have to crank it slightly as I did to avoid the handbrake clash. Anyway, let us know what you decide to do.

[b_caswell]

Re: Quick Shift for Marina 1.3 Gearbox

It wouldn't be too difficult to mount the hand brake on the left of the tunnel. That's where Mk1's are any way and my hybrid kit came with a left hand handbrake mounting so never thought about it being in the way. I have to say that Gregs Mk1 with a single rail box+O/D has the stubby bottom end only with a ,new thread cut for the knob. Only problem I had was when the knob pulled apart whilst trying to pull up for reverse and my thumb was between the knob and the bottom of the dash. That smarts!