Replacing shift lever

[submax]

Hi all,
I replaced the foot shift lever on my '09 XB12Ss. When I torque it down to the manual specs, the action is really stiff. When I compare the old shift lever to the new one, the plastic bushings are definitely a little thinner, so I think the new bushings are binding a little against between the body of the shift lever and the bolt flange that is holding the lever in place. I'm thinking of just keeping the bolt a little loose while the plastic bushings wear down a bit and just keep checking and retightening as necessary. Has anyone else had this issue? Any thoughts?
Thanks!
James

 

[WhiskeyFox]

You can't swap the old bushings over?


Could always use some BLUE loctite to hold the bolt from vibrating loose once it's at the tension you prefer.

 

[Kole_DeWoody]

Put a washer behind it.

 

[oh9bolt]

Is this with the spacer in place?

 

[Cooter]

The Torque 'spec' is meant to torque the pivot bolt until theres no side-side wobble in the lever, and the up and down action returns to center without being stiff. Blue loctite.

 

[submax]

Yeah, this is with the metal sleeve and the two plastic bushings in place. I'm sure the plastic bushings will wear to the right size before too long. The blue loctite and periodic checking is what I figured I would do. Just curious if anyone had ever run into this issue before when installing a new shift lever. Thanks for the ideas, guys!

 

[Cooter]

The plastic bushings won't wear any significant amount at all. It is very important that the lever is free to move back to center by itself.

Whatever torque spec you are using is meant to get the above result. It's ok to make a minor adjustment on that spec. It's not a head bolt! haha.:eagerness:

 

[submax]

Interesting, Cooter. So, is there just that much variation in the thickness of the new plastic bushings? Because, I can't get anywhere near the torque spec without significant binding. The spec is 22 ft lbs and I'm probably putting on 5 (if that). I figured that this might just be normal behavior because of a break-in time for the new bushings. But, maybe not.

 

[Cooter]

With that much of a difference, I'd look for thinner bushings to get the bolt tighter. There is a lot of lateral force on that bolt by your foot when you shift, and you do NOT want to wear out the threaded bung on the cover.

You can put some emory cloth on a flat surface to thin them out or get nylon washers at an Ace hardware or Home Depot.