Scootin159

On the way in to work this morning, a bolt fell out of my shifter (Schnell short shifter), and essentially left me stuck in neutral. Luckily I was packed up for an event after work, and had all my tools in the car/trailer & was able to fix it.

However, after putting it back together, the car is VERY hard to shift. It CAN shift, and is "smooth", but it takes nearly 2 hands to MOVE the shifter.

Here's what happened: The bolt you see in the attached picture (the only bolt head you see), fell out. Luckily I found the bolt sitting right under where the car fell apart (at a stop sign), but didn't see a washer. I put the bolt back in & got to work.

My question is... will it loosen up? Is this something that will go away in 24 hrs, I only drove it 2 more blocks to work, so don't have much input. Is this because I'm missing the washer? Is it more likely that the rod end is 'twisted', and I simply am binding the rod end?

Any insight anyone can give me? I'm kinda stuck with limited tools and time, and have to drive 3hrs straight from here.

Scott at Team Harco

I don't know enough about the part to answer for sure - but if the washer is providing the clearance to the end of the bolt - you will need the washer. It might also explain the extra force required to shift. If the end of the bolt is tight against the heim joint ball, you will have significant resistance. I'd find a proper washer, loctite the bolt and even use safety wire. Double redundancy is always a good thing if you don't want repeats of bad things.

Scootin159

That makes sense... I didn't get a good look to see if the threads extended all the way into the joint (i.e. allowing the bolt to bottom out on the joint), but that's much what it 'felt' like. The bolt was certainly long enough for that to be an issue (maybe 1" long?). I'll have to go back by there and see if I can spot the missing washer.

Will probably remove & locktite at some point soon, when I have better than roadside access.

KuHL 951

How about just tightening the bolt up all the way and doing 2 tacks with a MIG? It's not like you can replace the Heim joint on them anyway without removing the welded shaft from the bracket. I'm going go over mine with a fine tooth comb since there have been so many problems with these lately.

Scootin159

Just went back & found a lock washer sitting in the lane right where I broke down. Will install this later, but I imagine you hit it on the head.

Thanks for the pointer, who knows when I would've figured that out.

Scott at Team Harco

You provided the photo. Were it not for that - I wouldn't have been able to "see" what looks like a possible problem.

Hope that fixes it for you. Also you'll want to hope the bolt did not damage the ball or the race. Not sure if it is possible to clean-up if that is the case. Might just need some exercising to work the burr down.

inactiveuser92616

Looking at it, I came to the same conclusion. That bolt is bearing down against the ball end, or atleast distorting the race.

vt951

I had the exact same thing happen to my Schnell in the middle of an auto-x run. I was able to get it re-bolted at the event, and then used loctite later on, and it has not been a problem since (it's been about 4 months, 2 DE's and 2 autocrosses).

Anyway, I thought it was totally ridiculous that a product like this would be shipped with a bolt that can come loose so easily. I called Vertex (vendor I bought the Schnell kit from) and told them about it, and they said they would call Schnell right away to inform them.

How long ago did you buy your Schnell?

Scootin159

Got it about 3 years ago, 40+ autox's, 6 or so DE's and 30k miles ago.

I too thought it was a bad idea to not have locktite or even a few welds on the bolt....

FWIW, mine's also from Vertex.

Scootin159

Just replaced bolt w/ washer this time. Works GREAT now!

Thank you to everyone.