Well I got work done on my shifter today, it is 90% done. I am using the general idea of the f23 shifter, rotated 90* left, with the new select arm support "carved" out of some stainless steel, the arm is the f23 arm, and for the present the bushing (between the select arm and the shift arm) is also stainless steel (from my brief research, stainless and iron shouldn't have any issues being a bearing surface together, and I got it to have much less play than the old plastic one, much less than my 4 speed had to) The shift arm, I cut off the part where the cable used to attach, and ground down the opposite side weight to a flat section I will be attaching the shift cable to (just have to drill the hole). I'm using the Rodney select cable from my 4 speed, and I decided the shift cable was just a little too short, no matter what I did, so I got the 5 speed shift cable from Rodney (2ish inches longer), and it's perfect. It has the cables at a pretty good angle, at least visually, I shouldn't have much if any select effect from moving the shift cable, visually the shift cable is about 90*, select isn't as good, the support is maybe a hair to tall, tilting the arm towards the cabin, making the 1/2 to 3/4 movement slightly longer, lower effort, and 3/4 to 5/R a slightly shorter distance and higher effort on the shifter in the cabin.
Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT: It has the cables at a pretty good angle, at least visually, I shouldn't have much if any select effect from moving the shift cable
Yes, the angles look reasonably good like that. I think that the stock F23 centering springs will work for you. Do the cables pass below the throttle body?
Yes, the angles look reasonably good like that. I think that the stock F23 centering springs will work for you. Do the cables pass below the throttle body?
Your welds have a lack of fusion, it is like globs of metal sitting on top the the parts. This is not strong.
What kind of welding process are you doing?
Removing mill scale and rust before welding (to weld on clean shiny metal) is a simple thing you can do to improve weld quality.
Different kinds of sanding, flap discs, wire wheels, etc, all of that is good to clean up dirty steel before welding.
Yes, they run right over the y pipe, a little tighter than with the 4 speed, but the same direction and angle.
Yes with those welds, it was very hard, the upright piece is stainless steel, the base piece is steel, the cable mounts are iron I think, and I'm using a cheap fcaw welder, with stainless steel flux core wire. It goes on very globby or not at all, on the stainless exhaust it works pretty well, it still goes on globby, but grinding it down, there are no "seams" between the globs and the base material, but welding on those different materials is really tricky, maybe the welders bad, maybe the wire, maybe I'm bad, maybe all of the above haha!
Originally posted by 1985 Fiero GT: Yes with those welds, it was very hard, the upright piece is stainless steel, the base piece is steel, the cable mounts are iron I think, and I'm using a cheap fcaw welder, with stainless steel flux core wire. It goes on very globby or not at all, on the stainless exhaust it works pretty well, it still goes on globby, but grinding it down, there are no "seams" between the globs and the base material, but welding on those different materials is really tricky, maybe the welders bad, maybe the wire, maybe I'm bad, maybe all of the above haha!
I am running gas on my MIG, but the steel wire welds flatter than the stainless wire; it might be worth trying a different wire type.
Also check if your welder is wired with the correct polarity (if it can be switched) for what you're doing.
Part cleanliness is definitely a factor.
[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 04-10-2025).]
I am running gas on my MIG, but the steel wire welds flatter than the stainless wire; it might be worth trying a different wire type.
Also check if your welder is wired with the correct polarity (if if can be switched) for what you're doing.
Part cleanliness is definitely a factor.
Yeah, the stainless wire is pretty bad haha, and yes, the parts could definitely have been cleaned more, after the first couple fails on that shifter I started whacking it with a hammer to test the strength, once I had something that worked, I layered on more weld, the end result seems pretty strong, at least to my hammer haha
Well, today marked 2 years since my Fiero officially became my first car! Yesterday it got trailered back to my house (from winter storage, still missing the intake, that's the only real thing preventing it from being driven), so now I can clean up a bunch more stuff, get my exhaust leak free, and wrap it, and I'll probably redo that weld on the shift mechanism, I want to lower it a tad to get the cable alignment better, and that gives me a good excuse haha.
This evening I worked on the shifter mechanism, it is basically finished, I played with the cable lengths, which helped the unevenness I had when comparing the left movement to the right movement. The biggest thing I had still, was that moving from center to left was a little too loose, center to right was a little too stiff, so I used the right centering spring from the 4 speed shifter mechanism (technically a spare I had) and that made it to strong to the right, so I played with that spring, heating and bending the end a few mm to reduce the tension, and in the end it is pretty good, even pressure to move the shifter left or right, shift knob is well centered (center neutral is just a tad left and back from perfectly upright). Shift cable appears to be 90*from arm, select cable lines up well, and the lengths are just right. Tomorrow I'll finish the exhaust, and add a second support for the shift cables from elsewhere on the transmission, make sure the cable mounts are welded well, and clean up/paint the mechanism.
