Holy cow! Taking my first full cab to pieces

Nice work, Parris. It really looks great. You could go with Devzone's suggestion if you cut the original shaft down a bit further. If you leave about an inch at the bottom, you may even be able to extend the top half up enough to reuse it. A shift knob could hide the sheared off part.

For the bolts, a quick run through the brush side of a bench grinder should clean them right up.

 

Yeah, all good valid points, my only concern being actually 'removing' the shaft from the assembly to work on it. I was hoping to be able to clamp it where it was and work on it, but if it is a total disassembly (argh!) then yeah your (and Devzone's) suggestion would be the strongest one.

Hmmm, must buy a bench grinder lol <Another excuse to buy another tool!>

 

Going to need to establish precisely what value of switch is used. They will be easy to remove, but the 'arms' are custom jobs lengthened and bent to accomodate the metal shaft that runs through the centre of the assembly. A bit more work required, but not impossible!

And thanks to MartyJ (www.killercabs.com) in Australia, I now have details on the final assembly of the gear stick. I couldn't find images anywhere so he took his unit out of storage for me and snapped these 2 images.

The first thing that struck me is that the lever as it comes out of the gear stick looks to be made of two different metals and therefore perhaps Devzone's idea would work if I re-thread the top of the lever. Perhaps it was the thread that was snapped off the gear lever I had?

Until now I assumed it would be one piece of metal. Is that not aluminium?, but the lower part is steel. Different coloration?! You can't weld aluminium to steel though so it MUST be in two parts and threaded.

Secondly, where on earth am I going to be able to find that plastic plate? Might have to just have a slightly incomplete assembly.

Over to you OE, is it a go'er? If so how much do you recon it would cost to repair? Just how close could you get it to the original do you think?

 

To save money, you can also buy a steel wire brush attachment (see "stem mounted" bits here) for your drill (if it has a high enough RPM) and clean up the heads without having to remove the bolts.

 

...and miss the opportunity to own yet another tool?! :lol:

I've had it confirmed that the end of the gear lever is infact an aluminium add on - it is 190mm in length and looks like it would have been screwed into place so really it was infact the screw thread that snapped off. Possibly a flaw in the original piece of metal. A bubble in the cast or something?

 

And another job done. Fixed the marquee lighting. £12.99 for a new fitting as the old one had totally blown. 30 minute job to swap over.

 

I can fix it all for free, all u have to do is pay for shipping both ways.

If you want it to look 100% original then the plastic gear number's plate is gonna be a stumbling block.

If it was my decision I would machine the (top plate) gear quadrant out of aluminium and engrave the numbers in situ, then polish it, so that the plate looked more 'modern' like a Ferrari or the such like, more stylish less cheap looking in other words. Same for the actual gear knob, I'd machine up a nice metal one, rather than try to find a plastic one.

...Of course if u wanted it black and plastic thats up to you, I could spray it black and leave 'as-is' for you to add a plastic gear number plate when and if u obtain one.

...The top part of the stick is chrome plated, hence shiny.

The breakage wasn't technically a flaw, its from abuse (overstressed) due to the leverage ratio being quite significant in relation to the task it has to perform, day-in-day-out.

Oh, and the limit switches I can fix those as well, they look like regular one's.

Hope this helps.

 

OE, I tell thee what, if you wished to go to the kind of level of work you mentioned, then I would be more than willing to provide you with certain items as previously discussed as some form of payment. Would it be possible to mark it as 'Refurbished: Old Engineer & Parris 2008' by any chance or is that asking for the uber hard? I only ask because after all this effort I think it should be dedicated.

PM me if you wish to discuss further. Seriously, I would greatly appreciate the effort of even getting a basic unit up and running!
:clap:

 

Hehe, yeh I can engrave whatever u like, where u like!!!!

...Like I said bundle it up and send it down here. I presume there's no rush for the job??? If there is lmk, as work is chaos, and it would be best if I sorted your job 'as and when' if that makes sense, bearing in mind its a freebie :110:

 

Amazing! Thanks OE! The cab runs without the gears being present so they will not be missed considering they don't function. It will give me sufficient time to rub down and re-spray the black metal plates, plus possibly start work on the patches of red that require touching up!

Ahhhhhh, I love it when a plan comes together....

Cheers - will post asap, but take as long as required. :thumbsup:

There will be a little 'something' in the package to thank you for your effort.

 

Excellent

 

OE, here are some images that might assist. Can't send the top and S plate as they are too big, heavy and I need to respray them, so here they are in situ and the size of the graphic plate that needs to be manufactured is 120mm x 120mm x 3mm

Note the top plate when removed reveals the larger S plate that has x 4 holes for the plate you are manufacturing and to screw it to the think metal gearing plate with the grooves cut in it. I am sending that plate (clearly) so you'll have the screw positions. When it is assembled properly it is exactly in the middle, not offset.

Package going off in the next couple of days (registered)

See images;











Plus this one again which shows what I mean; although his graphic plate looks longer!

 

very nice Parris :thumbsup:

 

Okay, seems to make sense, though god knows why they chose to make it so badly / complicated!!!!

...Btw what are you describing as the 'S plate'?

 

It's great seeing it working! I don't remember the last time i saw a Ridge Racer on Arcades.

All i can say is: Fantastic work Parris!

 

The large metal plate shaped more like a long Z from ZZ Top album covers lol - it runs the entire length of the gear assembly from the dashboard to the footplate. It also has the fake radio sticker and gear lever sticker (Green).



You can see it clearly on this one.

 

...Ahhh the 'center' console facia, got yer

 

All name suggestions are welcome lol - in my cabinet schematics, it is simply identified by a number!

 

OE, gear assembly posted to you - I never placed anything inside with the gears as I didn't think the sharp, pointed and heavy assembly would do the 'material' any good. It shall arrive separately. Still got to fish it out though, however it will arrive! ;-)

 

Hi, yep it arrived this morning.

Just had a quick look and worked out why it broke. The lower rose joint was restricting articulation due to over travel, this meant that originally you would not have been able to select 1st gear smoothly. Instead of sorting the travel on the rose joint, someone took the lazy approach and ground a lump out of the gear lever, hence weakening it!

...One thing I will need Parris, is the overall dimensions of the top plate, the one that sits under the 's' plate. (This is the plate that I will be replacing with a one piece plate with the numbers directly engraved on it, thus I need like-for-like dimensions 'cos the original black top plate wont be needed)

The top of the gear lever case that I have is 4.5" x 4.5".

In your picture it shows the 's' plate as having a hole roughly 4.75" x 4.75".

If you can lmk what the exact size is in inch's or mm's it would be appreciated, also the thickness of the plate as well would be handy.

Hope this makes sense.