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That is a pic of a heim joint, which is one thing you need to do. The OEM rod end joints wore out pretty fast and were doomed. At around 100k heim joints will wear out, but you get your money's worth.
There is some play in my shift lever where it meets the spline even though the bolt is very tight. There is also side to side movement on the shift rod end (previous picture). Tomorrow I'm going to get a chance to really look at them rather than the cursory look. The reason I asked about the shift rod end was because the part looks like it has a swivel of sorts built into it and is supposed to move from side to side. Is that not true? Is there supposed to be no side to side movement in the shift rod end?
Shift rod should be firm, forward - backwards you will feel spring tension from the trans, side to side NO. There will be a bolt with a heim joint, it will rotate, but if properly installed and corrrect bolt still no side to side, linkage rotation, but NO side to side. With proper bushings, joints, linkage, and shift lever, it should all be fairly firm. Any movement where you feel free movement indicated wear and should be addressed before you have a failure.
Don't be intimidated by a clutch adjustment, you should become familiar with it.
I finally got around to removing the shift lever (part #21 which was toast) and installing the new one. Ordered some nice new old stock parts from eBay. Then, the new shift lever (part #28) came in and I discovered the original owner had replaced the stock one with a much smaller one. The new part is the stock lever.
The previous one was held to the spline with a single bolt which threaded all the way through, then a lock washer and nut on the other side. Simple. Strangely, (to me anyway) the oe only has threads on one side of where the bolt goes, the other side is unthreaded. There is an additional bushing (part #20) in the parts diagram which shows it going into the bracket's pivot (pic #14). Is there supposed to be a hole in the bracket's pivot, because mine doesn't have one? Or does the bushing slide into the unthreaded side of the shift lever (part #28). I asked someone on eBay who had the bushing if there are threads in it and they said no. So how does the foot lever securely attach to the spline if there are no threads on the other side of the lever (or in the bushing). Where does the bushing go? It might be self-explanatory in person, but all of the parts haven't arrived yet and I want to make sure the correct ones have been ordered. Thanks.
Last edited by Dirty Dancer; Sep 21, 2022 at 01:46 PM.
Look at the parts list again, I believe #14 refer to the hole not the bracket. It is for a grease fitting, some models had them some didn't. I have drilled and added them to sever bikes that didn't come with one. Did it make a huge difference, I don't know, but it can't hurt.
Ok. I got it now. The thing that messed me up was the previous owner didn't have the bushing installed, so when I took the old lever out, it wasn't there. Also, from the pictures I had seen, it didn't appear the bushing's diameter was wide enough to fit over the shift lever spline (#28). Thanks a lot for your help.
Last edited by Dirty Dancer; Sep 21, 2022 at 09:39 PM.
Just to follow up, I changed out the shift lever, the spline and the shift rod end. Now it shifts like a dream. Perfect shifts. The bushing actually was still inside the shift lever (spline) and looks like it was machine pressed in. So I didn't change it out because it still looked good. Just curious, if anyone has changed the bushing, how is it done?
After using the shorter lever, the 2" longer oem one seems almost too long. But I was wearing old sneakers and not the boots I'd normally use. Thanks for your help with this.
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