DIY - Gear Link mod
Some owners of the gen1 and gen2 have noticed the poor gear change. Below are
details on how to improve it.
Thanks to Jon (kupsjon) for the DIY
This mod can be discussed in the DIY section of the forum
Right then at last I've put together a little description and a few pics of
what I did to take up the slack in the gear linkage. This is so simple to do
but its amazing how much better it makes the gear change feel. The first pic
shows the bad points and the bolts and pin that need to be removed to get the
linkage out. In the first pic it shows the washer and dowel/sleeve already
fitted.
(click to enlarge)
First off you need to remove the two bracket bolts and the R pin to make life
easier, then you should be able to lift the whole lot away from the gear box
with it only being attached to the cable still.
(click to enlarge)
As you can see in the above pic there is a gap at the side of the rubber
grommet and the right hand linkage. These linkages are only supposed to move up
and down but as there is a large amount of free play when they move, they also
move from side to side. I would say this is one of the reasons why our
gearboxes don't locate smoothly as well as the excess slack in the stick. Once
you have it like this the left hand part will just slide off leaving you with
this.
(click to enlarge)
For the first bad point it is as easy as putting a washer on the right side of
the grommet when you reassemble. Or if you have the same problem as Shaddoh
had, where his grommet was split and worn he just removed it and replaced the
whole lot with 2 washers. The second bad point seems to vary from year model.
We are not sure if this is what Hyundai did when they made the gears a bit
better after 2000. The top peg on the left is the part that locates into the
gear box main shaft. This peg locates between two lips to move it up and down.
However on mine there was a massive amount of difference in the size of the peg
and the gap between the lips. Translating to lots of free play in the stick. So
all I did was to get a piece of steel bar with an 8mm internal bore and turn it
down to the correct size to remove the slack. On Shaddoh's linkages there was a
plastic button on the end of this peg so he didn't need to do this part. But if
yours hasn't or is worn this will remove a lot of free play and will last a lot
longer than the plastic.
(click to enlarge)
Then all that is left to do is reassemble the linkages back together (not
forgetting to add the washer). It's as simple as that, even if you have the
plastic button on yours and it is fine, it is still worth doing. As I said
Shaddoh had the button on his but he still felt a lot of difference just by
putting the washer in there.