My wife convinced me to write this short story (escapade) about my temporary shift cable fix….if I bore you sorry….but she was in stiches when I told her.
Well as you may know by now I lost everything but 1st gear the other day, limped home in 1st at 5K. Upon inspection I found the shift cable had pulled away from the ball joint that attaches to the shift lever. I looked at it and it slipped back on pretty easy, so I figured “I can fix that”
I put the ball joint in a drill vice and a standard 1/8 inch bit went through like butter, I drilled a straight line through both sides. Picture below
I purchased a package of two 1/8 inch roll pins that were almost 2 inches long, way more than I should have needed…..or so I thought !
I got under the car and put the end back on the cable and gave it a tap or two with my knipex pliers and it popped back in home position. I thought I was pretty smart placing the hole so I had the best access to get a cordless drill in there. I planned on making the pre-drilled holes a guide for the drill bit. But I ran into a snafu, the angle was wrong….but I was committed now, after all Woody had already shipped me a set of replacement cables and this was an exercise in “I can fix that”
I was worried that the shiny polished end of the cable might be too hard to drill through, typically round shiny metal and drilling holes do not go good together….but I digress, the Dewalt bit went through the cable end like……well butter, it was even softer than the ball joint shroud that was crimped around it. But here was the catch, it was at about 20 degrees and missed the hole on the other side completely and made a new hole…not good but it was worthless like it was anyway. Now the fun part starts. I had measured the roll pin and cut it off using the same pneumatic drill vice using a cutoff wheel. It looked great and I grasp it is a set of small needle nosed pliers by the hollow to dress up the cut edge, just as I finished…POP it slipped out and time stopped as I heard 1 distinctive ping as it hit the hard concrete floor and then it obviously slipped into an event horizon of the dreaded “Parts black hole” and never to be seen again. Crap I thought well I still have the other end and another un-cut roll pin. So I cut off the other side and dressed it up and got it perfect and as I turned to leave the drill press area my Mom walked in and the door hit my elbow and ….same black hole ate that one too. OK I took my last roll pin and cut off another one, third time is a charm right. I actually got to the car this time and as I was positioning it to press in one side my phone buzzed in my pocket and I dropped and it fell into the aluminum triangle suspension brace. I tried with a magnet to find it with no luck. So I cut the last piece and dressed it, pressed it halfway from the bottom and dripped some red Loctite from the top and finished the press in and success. I put it all together and the other gears were there and it works fine.
Moral of the story for anyone who wants to do this “Fix” only drill one hole and let the other hole form as you drill through and turn your phone off and lock the door.
Dwight
Hybrid Mode
