Trango
Member
- 735
- 23
- 18
- Location
- Boulder, CO
Hey guys,
I am about to go freaking postal here. I need to fabricate a shift tower for my 6853 tranny. The goshdarn unit I have keeps breaking. It's a cast unit, and I've taken the TIG to this thing three times now, and even with the most diligent pre and post heat and care, I am convinced that this is just going to continue to break (and it's doing it even outside the HAZ of my welds).
If you can follow this, you realize that my shift tower now looks like bride of frankenstein. Moreover, it's probably so shocked from all the welding that it will honestly be a miracle if it's strong enough to live out its service life (and it was probably weakened in the past from some traumatic event, which is why it cracked shortly after install).
Now, I was wondering what these Dana shift towers look like inside. I see a pin going side to side through the top of the shift tower, which presumably holds the swivel mechanism for the shifter stick itself.
I have no problem fabricating the base and upright for the shift tower, but what about the swivel mechanism? I don't want to totally destroy my stock piece if disassembly will do so, so I'm asking here on the complete offchance that someone has ever taken one of these apart. That part where the swivel attaches is the only unknown... otherwise I'm good to go to make the entire rest of the tower out of 1/4" and 3/8" plate.
By the way, I THINK I've fixed the issue that was causing it to break in the first place (there was a clearance issue on the 1-R dogleg that I remedied yesterday)... of course the fact that I'm about 30 pounds away from a one arm pullup on my right arm doesn't help either.
Thanks in advance
Bob
I am about to go freaking postal here. I need to fabricate a shift tower for my 6853 tranny. The goshdarn unit I have keeps breaking. It's a cast unit, and I've taken the TIG to this thing three times now, and even with the most diligent pre and post heat and care, I am convinced that this is just going to continue to break (and it's doing it even outside the HAZ of my welds).
If you can follow this, you realize that my shift tower now looks like bride of frankenstein. Moreover, it's probably so shocked from all the welding that it will honestly be a miracle if it's strong enough to live out its service life (and it was probably weakened in the past from some traumatic event, which is why it cracked shortly after install).
Now, I was wondering what these Dana shift towers look like inside. I see a pin going side to side through the top of the shift tower, which presumably holds the swivel mechanism for the shifter stick itself.
I have no problem fabricating the base and upright for the shift tower, but what about the swivel mechanism? I don't want to totally destroy my stock piece if disassembly will do so, so I'm asking here on the complete offchance that someone has ever taken one of these apart. That part where the swivel attaches is the only unknown... otherwise I'm good to go to make the entire rest of the tower out of 1/4" and 3/8" plate.
By the way, I THINK I've fixed the issue that was causing it to break in the first place (there was a clearance issue on the 1-R dogleg that I remedied yesterday)... of course the fact that I'm about 30 pounds away from a one arm pullup on my right arm doesn't help either.
Thanks in advance
Bob