What shift linkage with G250?

[Roysneon]

I'm throwing my M50 in with the stock E36 G250 behind it. The shifter is in the hole just fine, got the carrier on and into the rubber bushing thing that holds it on in the back and it all looked ok.

Sat in the car, and tried to shift it into all the gears. Neutral is where 1,3,5 should be, 5th gear barely engages and 2+4th are where neutral should be.

I have at my disposal an M40 or M42 linkage/carrier, also an M20 carrier with a broken selector rod...Could I just make the selector rod shorter to move things where they should be? The carrier puts the lever pivot point pretty much spot on where it should be. Is it hard to weld selector rods? They seem pretty thin and I do NOT want my selector rod breaking and leaving me fucked over once I do have this swap done and on the road. It does make sense to me that I could shorten the rod to make it work.

[Roysneon]

Oh and I searched google and this site but I couldn't find what I feel I needed to figure it out. Best I found was this:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=119013&highlight=getrag+250+linkage

[328ijunkie]

bend.

[Roysneon]

Dave to the rescue again!

[Roysneon]

Soo it's still not very good and I'm pretty sure the selector rod is rubbing the driveshaft. Is it a bend as in make it an arc or a twist as in make one of the pins a different angle than the other one?

[evoDRichie]

any pics of how much we should bend them?

[Roysneon]

I just wanna know what to order if I want to get all new delrin bushings or just get a DSSR. I just do not want to get the wrong stuff if I'm gonna be spending decent money on it.

[Mossman]

if the shifter is too far forward you need to shorten the shaft. Just take a look at it, it's a simple assembly. I wouldn't count on any store bought shaft fitting perfectly, better to cut and weld your rod or if you only need a moderate adjustment bend it into an arc like this
_____
/........\ (ignore the periods just there as place holders, they are where ur driveshaft would be)

so its overall length is less but it arcs up and around the guibo.

If the shifter is both too far forward and too far to one side or the other when in neutral then you need to twist the rod to match as well. I usually cut and weld and do it all at once but I'm sure you could heat it up with a mapp gas torch or something similar (propane probably not hot enough) and twist it with one end in a vice and the other end grabbed with a vice grip or something.

I've used g260 in all of my swaps so I have no specific info for you to help with g250 install, but g260 angle is off farther so I've been through the same shit only worse a few times. Not the kind of thing anyone could tell you to do over the internet better than trial and error in the car can do.

[Cyrix2k]

don't bend anything, use the e36 carrier. I used the whole e36 shift assembly and it's a direct bolt in.

:edit: If you need one, I think I have spare assembly around here. The carrier by itself is like $45 at the dealer. Ask me how I know :(
:edit2:

What you need:
G250 (you has)
e30 crossmember
e36 shift assembly - that is the shift rod, carrier, shifter (or substitute your choice of short shifter), etc. REBUILD using all new bushings!!!
e30 chassis mount for the late model shifter
e36 slave cylinder (ask me how I know, lol)
e30 5 speed drive shaft w/3 12mm to 10mm shims OR the e36 5 speed drive shaft. I used my e30 drive shaft which is an '85 325e 5 speed plus spacers from MCMaster.
trans mounts of your choice - I used e21 mounts that I ground and threaded to fit.

[Roysneon]

I have all of that short of new bushings everywhere. Guess it can't hurt to fully rebuild everything (except my wallet).

[Cyrix2k]

Did you install the shifter backwards? One way will make it feel like the shifter is located way too far back and 180 degrees the other way is correct.