What does this do?

[Racer Boy]

Originally Posted by lynngarner

Thanks. What does it do?

When you move the shift lever, that movement is relayed to the arm in your picture by cables. So when you are shifting gears, that arm pictured is moving. The center pivot of the arm is a shaft that goes through the transaxle case and moves the internal shift forks that actually engage the gears. There are two of these arms, you can see the second one above and ahead of the one in your picture.

[Phat Hippy]

The round piece is a counter weight attached to the shift lever.