Strange things happened Sunday afternoon spoiling my wonderful fall afternoon drive. I was pulling a long hill and all of a sudden, I started experiencing clanging and banging coming from the driveline. My first thought was Oh no, a broken crank. Thank goodness that wasn't it. By the time i had gotten to the top of the hill all the noise had stopped and i eased on home uneventful. Crawling underneath, I discovered that the left hand bolt (the one with the tapered end and a lock nut) was missing, and two right hand bolts were still there and the housing was cracked down the middle of the bolt holes.I'm fairly sure that the left bolt loosened and eventually worked its way on out putting stress on the other side of the housing and causing it to break. I'm thinking that the noise stopped when the housing finished cracking.
Now my dilemma is I am not having any luck finding a used original shifter or housing, and i really don't want a repop, or want to have to weld it up.Notice that I have removed the shaft in preparation for brazing it up but, I don't think that is something I would be happy with. If anyone has one,please let me know.
The moral of this is to: CHECK THE BOLTS ON YOUR RUCKSTELL SHIFTER PERIODICALLY.
The new made units are fantastic quality.
You might even think about updating to the long nose type.
Mark:
I'm glad that you mentioned that because i have heard that the long nose ones work better and maybe they won't go into neutral. I'm really not familiar with that type but i am interested in learning more.Are they interchangeable without modifications?
Thanks
Roger
Get a new body from Chaffin and go on down the road.
They are interchangeable but you will need to get the housing and related parts. The internal parts in the shifting housing are different. If there are problems with it going into neutral then there are other problems. Read the string on jumping out of gear.
Roger, that can be welded very easily, but as Mark said, you may want to upgrade to the long nose type. Whatever you decide, don't pitch yours just because it is broken, someone may be able to use it. JMHO. Dave
If it were mine? I would weld it or braze it. But a new one may be better just because they are available in the improve vintage design.
Glad you made it home.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
Generally speaking: A long nose style shift lock will HELP to prevent the Ruckstell from going into neutral or failing to shift as it should. They are an improvement over the earlier style. However, having a neutral is consequence of worn parts, sloppy assembly, etc. Nothing will keep a worn out Ruckstell from going into neutral or missing shifts. If you have a neutral in a Ruckstell you have problems.
I broke the housing when a newly purchased car with an erroneously assembled rear end (missing the inner hyatt bearing) coughed and split it. I purchased just the housing from Chaffin's and it went together fine.