Changing gear...

Just a quick update on a couple of hours work today (forgot camera again – sorry!) – although looking back I think ‘why the hell did that take so long’! Having decided that the radiator will be at the back of the car (probably), the natural follow on from that is that the fuel tank will go at the front (I think). This means (still with me?) that there should be room for the gear linkage to come under the engine, removing the need for the cable shift. So I spent time today making the new link bar. First was to find a suitable piece of tube to fit over the gear selector shaft. As it happens, an off cut of the tube that I used for the suspension was nearly perfect. I cut this to size and drilled it so that a 6mm bolt will go through the hole in the selector and clamp the tube firmly in place. To this tube I carefully cut and shaped a piece that drops vertically down. For this and the fore/aft link I used the selector rod left from the original Rover donor. I could have used the Fiesta rod but the Rover version is a bit meatier! Now all I have to fathom is how to attach the rod on the other side of the engine – the Sylva Riot links to the bellhousing bolts – if anyone out there has any photos I’d be really grateful! Bye for now!