So Thursday night was the night to get the Pure Motorsport shifter fitted. I went down to the local Renault dealer to see Mick, our local mechanic friend who was fitting it for me - I truly take my hat off to anyone who would attempt to fit one of these on the driveway. The ramp just makes it sooo much easier and it is certainly not a five minute job - it still took him quite a while to get it right and the exhaust had to be loosened, heat shields taken off etc to gain access and make life easier for getting the old tower out and new one in etc - I was even sat in the car raised up on the ramp helping with the gears from inside while he aligned it all from underneath!
Anyway, photos! Got the car into the workshop and I got everything out and ready to be fitted so we knew what we had;
........ and a random engine bay shot, because I could! :laughing:
Anyway, one point to note when fitting this kit is that the Pure Motorsport instructions make no mention or reference to keeping the boot for when the new pivot gets fitted!
Mick made a good point here that it's there for a reason and should be kept and so, it fitted nice and snugly over the new one;
A couple of random photos of new parts fitted along the way and how it all looks when on;
Here we see the vibration damper fitted. There's not actually much room to fit it but this was the best place.
When changing gear, it does slightly touch the wire in the picture........ oxygen sensor?......... but doesn't move it or rub against it/cause any harm so Mick was happy to leave it as it is;
This was the shifter and damper fitted. The gears were lined up and all felt good......... I took it round the block and felt no vibrations from under the car etc (although wasn't at motorway speeds or anything). The thing that was really annoying me almost straight away was the vibration and rattle type noise from the top of the tower, under the gear gaiter, inside the car. It was rattling away, but touch it and it stopped........ let go, rattled again. So annoying, but nothing could be done at now 9:30 in the evening and car got put away again in the garage.
Skip forward to this morning and I got the car out again, round the block I went, sure enough, rattle rattle rattle. My OCD and need for everything to be neat and just so was not happy about this (lol) so I thought of a very simple solution. Luckily, the new gear gaiter popped out again without breaking the clips!!! Phew!
I got an elastic band and did this;
I then fired up the car again, let it idle, no rattle....... was gently revving it, no rattle........ the band has enough 'give' to allow the movement for the gear changes (this is where a solid cable tie would be no good) and doesn't cause any issue, but is tight enough to stop it vibrating. To stop the band slipping off, I've just neatly held it down with some tape;
It's a bit 'basic' I know, but all back together with the brand new gaiter and you would never know..........
Time will tell what it's like at a steady 60/70mph cruising speed but for what I've driven so far, it doesn't rattle and knock now like a racing car. Hopefully 182_steve's elastic band mod and Pure Motorsport damper under the car will work well 😂