i chose the L series gearset as it had the better ratios.
I thought i would just change to the column change selectors and be done with it.
one problem with this is that nissan went to a larger 1/2 selector shaft in the later gearboxes
I couldnt run the larger shaft as the selector that fits it is for the bigger synchros that the earlier gearset does not have.
Here is the larger 1/2 selector on the earlier shaft 14mm vs 16mm
The column change 1/2 shaft also has a notch in it for clearance of the selector.
I decided to make a sleeve to fit the fork to the shaft. cant be that hard.
Using some precision engineering skillz i learned from my brother in law Ray, I lined up the 2 detent notches and marked where the new hole for the dowel pin needed to be.
I ground a flat and dot punched it then drilled.
Some of my workmates told me i would never drill it as it was some kind of hardened tool steel sh*t. They were wrong.
I used this fine quality chinese drill press and only **** 4 drill bits
Then i made this sleeve up to go from 14mm up to 16mm. Pressed it on, machined a notch in it with 20 axis angle grinder
Test fit last night. Its the top one
WIN
So i reassembled the gearbox and it seemed to change gears ok.
After i chucked it in i cut up the navara driveshaft to make a new front half 130mm longer. I used the UJ's off the navara front half as they were sweet and the hanger bearing rubber was still good. I turned the tube off in the lathe and cut a section out of the rear half to go in.
A mate gave me a hand to assemble it on his bigger lathe and we arc welded it up.
It looks like its sticking out a long way from the box, but its only about 8mm further out than it was in the navara.
The column changer shaft on the wagon was a tiny bit short but the navara lower half was a perfect fit. They are splined together to be collapseable in an accident.
Also the wagon lever did not have enough in and out travel to select the extra row of gears. The part i am holding is the bush from the wagon which i punched out and as luck would have it, the navara with the spring return fitted perfectly
I turned the old stopper off the navara shaft and made a new one to grub screw on
Complete
Once i had it all installed i used a mixture of the navara and wagon linkages to get the shortest shift travel and also mixed and matched the best bushes for minimum slop.
First test drive was around the block then the next day ray and i went to hamilton for the night and the next day went to auckland for the cruise to the leadfoot ranch then back to new plymouth.
Around 950kms test drive and it went well. Only problem was the bolt on the column change shaft nearly fell out a few km from home and the gear changes got real sloppy.
Also by pure luck the driveshaft that was welded by a pair of low flying seagulls seems to be perfectly balanced. got it up to 136kmh and no vibrations
Only downside was my rebuild of the gearbox. I mix and matched the synchros but put the 1st and 2nd around the wrong way. When the box is cold it wont go into 2nd when moving. Its no trouble when warm.
Also, the speedo drive is on the other side of the tail housing so the cable hits the exhaust. Im waiting on a right angle drive box for the right price to come up on ebay and ill be away. For now its all good.