After 100K miles the gear shift lever on my '83RS is getting pretty loose. It flops sideways more than I like and makes gear changes feel sloppy. The pivot is pretty worn. it's snowing and I'm waiting on engine parts so I got some quality shop time in repairing it.
Pulled the lever off and scraped the crud off. There is a very thin bushing pressed into the aluminum lever. This rides on a steel shoulder bolt. You have to take it apart to clean/lube it.
First, the bushing gets pressed out. I set the lever on a big socket and used a Craftsman 10mm deep socket to press with. Size was perfect and the bushing came right out.
The bushing has a seam in it. it was set up in a vise on the drill bress and I cut the bushing along the seam. Just slide the vise into the saw. 2 passes. .032" slitting saw. You can use a Gryos slitting saw in a dremel but they are very thin so you either stack blades on the mandrel or do a couple passes. With a .032 slot I could push the bushing into the lever by hand but not enough clearance for the next move so I made another pass to widen the slot.
Finally it's wide enough. Took a couple of fittings with the bolt.
Next I sacrificed a .002 feeler gauge blade. I cut it to length to wrap around the bushing. I got it stuck in place with some tape and then I did a tight twist of wire to compress the slot in the bushing closed and hold the gauge stock tight. The inside of that bushing has a special texture, the gauge stock has to go on the outside, not to mention it's stainless rather than bronze.
Then I stuffed the bushing back into the lever bore. I used the twist of wire like a ring compressor.
Then I deburred the inside of the cut in the bushing with a scraper. The shaft of the shoulder bolt was worn concave and it was tight in the middle. A little more scraper work relieved the center of the bushing until the fit was just right. Slightly stiff lubed with 90 wt.
Next up was dealing with the bolt and the lubrication hassle. The bolt gets set up in the drill press and a 5/32 drill is positioned so the tip is at the midpoint of the shaft length (by eye). The drill press depth stop then gets locked down.
EDIT: Don't do this. No clearance for the grease gun. The hole has to go from the other end of the bolt. I changed that later (not shown)
I didn't know how hard the bolt was..seemed medium hard. I selected a cobalt drill bit just in case. It went through it like dry sand.
Lacking proper layout fluid I used a Sharpie marker on the side of the shaft and scribed the depth of the drill bore. Next a very slight concavity is cut with a grindstone in the Dremel.
Bolt gets set up in the press again and the position of the grind is compared to the drill which is still against the stops from the drilling. Looks good. Take the bolt out and center punch it for the cross drill.
After some eyeballin' and a lot of agonizing I do the cross drill, go all the way through the bolt. Will the deities of intersecting holes favor me?
Yeah baby. Reminder to self: Do Not Have Any One Of Those Holes Pointed At Your Face When You Spray Carb Cleaner Through Any Other Hole To Clear The Chips. (That was so dumb). Well, they intersect anyway. Both exit holes get deburred and polished out a bit with some crocus cloth.
I get the greaser out and try it. Perfect. Get grease out the far side, none out the near side (I pushing on that side) and not a lot of kickback out the injection hole. The lever is very smooth on the bolt and there is zero rocking. Jus' like new again.
By now staring at those parting lines is really bugging me. They get smoothed out while I have it at the bench.
It's getting out of hand. I'll have to replace the cracked shifter rubber next. Beer thirty, walk away.