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.

Hyundai Coupe DIY
(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.

Hyundai Coupe DIY
(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.

Hyundai Coupe DIY
(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.

Hyundai Coupe DIY
(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.


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