Posted by Jon D. on March 08, 2003 at 18:41:26:
In Reply to: "Phantom 5th gear" posted by jim on March 08, 2003 at 16:58:38:
Hey jim-
I think I read here somewhere (or a forum buddy told me) that the 5th gear was an added gear 1995 models and after. Allegedly, they simply added another 5th gear(?) to the 4-gear transmission assembly and didn't modify the design beyond that. I guess that was somehow a short-cut in design? Supposedly that is why it seems to be an "out of place" gear.
You can usually tell the gear you're in by RPM feel i.e high revs (no tachometer). I frequently hit 5th multiple times just to be sure I reached the "top".
I've thought of how I might make 5th easier to hit. I thought of thickening the shifter peg piece that goes above your foot so it would take less foot lift effort to get that baby into gear. Basically, a thicker shifter would make the shift more robust with the same amount of foot movement as the other gears. Make sense?
I didn't actually do it yet, I'm just dealing with the quirk as is. Just a theory. I thought a piece of rubber tubing over the existing rubber would make the modification "invisible".
Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you.
-Jon D.
'95 with 5 gears