WEVO GATE SHIFT REVISITED
09-17-2005, 04:51 PM
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WEVO GATE SHIFT REVISITED
I stated in a previous question tha I Spoke to a WEVO tech re the internal gate shifter WEVO sells. He is Hayden, and was most helpful & honest in response to my questions. What made it easy for me to decide whether or not to install one in my 82 SC coupe is the following, from a response by Hayden to shifter gate questions on the Pelican board:
" You may be one of the drivers - of whom there are many - where a WEVO GateShift kit offers no real advantage beyond a careful and skillful shifting technique."
His complete response follows for those who may find it as clear & educational as I did. After learning my transmission (do not strike me dead - feels like shifting an old VW bus I had in college), muscle memory seems to allow me to find all the gears w/o problems:-----------------------------------
The gates of the WEVO GateShift provide a solid obstruction in between the lateral planes of the gearshift pattern. That obstruction prevents the shift dongle from applying a force attempting to split the gear positions. The lateral division of the shift planes inside the transmission is a knife edge. The GateShift kit broadens that knife edge to ensure only one or the other gear can be accessed after you pass through neutral..
The Gate Shift from Seine provides a guide to each side of center to capture the lateral position of the lever.
We used to make a gated handpiece too. We elected to replace it with the internal gate when we had a greater understanding of internals of the 915 and the problems related directly to the architecture of the transmission - not the shifter.
The Seine Gate Shift provides excellent value for money, a simple device that adds a lot of tactile feedback about where you are directing the lever. However, it can not prevent the situation where the shift dongle is splitting the engagement of two shift rails - that task remains in the hand of the driver.
Perhaps none of this makes any sense to you? You may be one of the drivers - of whom there are many - where a WEVO GateShift kit offers no real advantage beyond a careful and skillful shifting technique.
Having said that - I have listened to many Monday morning tales of woe, by hapless drivers who "accidentally" selected the wrong gear - I have no doubt some of these "accidents" occurred when the shift dongle was pressed between 1st and 3rd - where 3rd was the intended target - both shift rails move together for some distance and the interlocker becomes active to arrest both shift rails. If you recognize that feeling you stop, back up to neutral and try again. If you dont....the dongle will eventually choose one or the other gear - if it was 1st - then you ride out the "accident"...... sorry, you had one more chance as you started to let up the clutch, if you missed your last chance.........
The system is not infallible - all gears are available all the time - if you use the shifter to position the dongle in front of first gear it can go in - regardless of speed - regardless of what you intended.
Whether or not this explains why people are excited about the product is not clear to me - but that's how it works.
Regards
Hayden
" You may be one of the drivers - of whom there are many - where a WEVO GateShift kit offers no real advantage beyond a careful and skillful shifting technique."
His complete response follows for those who may find it as clear & educational as I did. After learning my transmission (do not strike me dead - feels like shifting an old VW bus I had in college), muscle memory seems to allow me to find all the gears w/o problems:-----------------------------------
The gates of the WEVO GateShift provide a solid obstruction in between the lateral planes of the gearshift pattern. That obstruction prevents the shift dongle from applying a force attempting to split the gear positions. The lateral division of the shift planes inside the transmission is a knife edge. The GateShift kit broadens that knife edge to ensure only one or the other gear can be accessed after you pass through neutral..
The Gate Shift from Seine provides a guide to each side of center to capture the lateral position of the lever.
We used to make a gated handpiece too. We elected to replace it with the internal gate when we had a greater understanding of internals of the 915 and the problems related directly to the architecture of the transmission - not the shifter.
The Seine Gate Shift provides excellent value for money, a simple device that adds a lot of tactile feedback about where you are directing the lever. However, it can not prevent the situation where the shift dongle is splitting the engagement of two shift rails - that task remains in the hand of the driver.
Perhaps none of this makes any sense to you? You may be one of the drivers - of whom there are many - where a WEVO GateShift kit offers no real advantage beyond a careful and skillful shifting technique.
Having said that - I have listened to many Monday morning tales of woe, by hapless drivers who "accidentally" selected the wrong gear - I have no doubt some of these "accidents" occurred when the shift dongle was pressed between 1st and 3rd - where 3rd was the intended target - both shift rails move together for some distance and the interlocker becomes active to arrest both shift rails. If you recognize that feeling you stop, back up to neutral and try again. If you dont....the dongle will eventually choose one or the other gear - if it was 1st - then you ride out the "accident"...... sorry, you had one more chance as you started to let up the clutch, if you missed your last chance.........
The system is not infallible - all gears are available all the time - if you use the shifter to position the dongle in front of first gear it can go in - regardless of speed - regardless of what you intended.
Whether or not this explains why people are excited about the product is not clear to me - but that's how it works.
Regards
Hayden
09-17-2005, 05:25 PM
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Thanks Jack - I suspected that might be the case, but didn't want to presume - impressive guy to talk to.
Based on what I learned from him, I'm going to have the shifter and and the psj installed - haven't decided on which of the two. Since the Racing PSJ apparently requires welding, perhaps I should go w/the stock 911 PSJ - my car is primarily a daily driver that I'd like to have as track worthy as possible w/o going crazy. in either case the engine/tranny will be out for tranny rebuild, so that's not a factor in the decision. Your thoughts ?
Based on what I learned from him, I'm going to have the shifter and and the psj installed - haven't decided on which of the two. Since the Racing PSJ apparently requires welding, perhaps I should go w/the stock 911 PSJ - my car is primarily a daily driver that I'd like to have as track worthy as possible w/o going crazy. in either case the engine/tranny will be out for tranny rebuild, so that's not a factor in the decision. Your thoughts ?
09-18-2005, 09:26 PM
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do it all while its out.....if you;re gonna go down, might as well go down in flames huh?
Sounds like if you know how to drive, don't worry about it, but it is a saftey measure incase you or someone you let drive your car has an "oopppS" moment. F*ck it, its only a little more money and if the box is already apart......................
I got my motor out for a simple rebuild, well that was the intent, now the motor is fully balanced and blue printed, cams, extrude honed intake, throttle body, MAF conversion, heavyduty valve springs, I'm still on the fence for doing 3.4 P/C's
also the 915 is getting rebuilt (anyone ever have any cryro dipping done on there gears or syncros?) and the ZF rebuilt and brought up to 60%
Sounds like if you know how to drive, don't worry about it, but it is a saftey measure incase you or someone you let drive your car has an "oopppS" moment. F*ck it, its only a little more money and if the box is already apart......................
I got my motor out for a simple rebuild, well that was the intent, now the motor is fully balanced and blue printed, cams, extrude honed intake, throttle body, MAF conversion, heavyduty valve springs, I'm still on the fence for doing 3.4 P/C's
also the 915 is getting rebuilt (anyone ever have any cryro dipping done on there gears or syncros?) and the ZF rebuilt and brought up to 60%