Rally TN

[Sean Tennis]

If thats a factory style u-joint coupler I believe they are taper pin attached on both ends. Make sure it doesn't have any free play.

Is the bushing and sleeve at the front of shifter housing in good shape, no slop in gear lever?

The shifter set so as to be straight up and down when in neutral-assuming it's not bent?

If it was of clamp locating shifter coupler I'd say it might be an adjustment... Most likely it's a combination of wear, make sure the engine is absolutly solid, both side mounts and the front mount when applying power-try power braking and having someone watch for any movement. One could also try a shim on the detent ball in the gearbox side cover.

Thicker oil might be a stop gap but not a cure, probably best to rebuild gearbox. The stack may be to loose, or the pinion assembly might be starting to fail-the crush sleeve for maintaining pinion bearing load gets hot and collapses enough to induce freeplay on/off throttle, also the pinion housing bolts to case can back off.

If the engine moves at all and the car is hot when being driven agressively and working hard any kind of bump can kick it out of gear-even with the crashbox.

[GRMPer]

I'll crawl under there and check some more of that linkage.

[Sean Tennis]

Per, I've seen the clamp style coupler (versus tapered pin) not adjusted correctly, such that although the shifter is in gear and all feels well, once the oil gets hot the car will jump out of gear. To fix this the side cover can be removed an a visual inspection in the gearbox can be performed to see if in deed the shift rod is moving shift muffs fully. Of course it's an easier job in the 900 chassis then the 99...

I mention this because this may be something you wish to do anyway just to elimanate and question. If so when selecting forward gears, 1-3-5, the shift pawl inside the gearbox on the main selector rod should move back all the way till it hits the gear case-if I recall correctly.

If I recall you are running a 5 speed gearbox, did you have any issues setting up the shift housing inside the car to select all gears?

[GRMPer]

Yea, actually, I did....had to carve out a bunch of the stock housing so it would get 5th.

[The Josh]

Yea, actually, I did....had to carve out a bunch of the stock housing so it would get 5th.

Congrats on the finish, Per. Looking forward to meeting you in Wellsboro and to see the car in person.

[allessence]

Yea, actually, I did....had to carve out a bunch of the stock housing so it would get 5th.

When I did the 4 to 5 speed conversion back in early 90's on my 78 Turbo, I had spoken with a very knowledgeable gentleman whom told me I had to bend the shift rod at a particular angle for it to clear some of the components and to properly align the shift linkage.

If I remember I actually had to bend the rod upwards and towards 10 O'clock. And also had to use the later style shifter bottom nylon reverse lock out.

The car shifted perfectly with the stock shifting couplers.