To jump to the punchline, I now have a 5-speed Elan. Nine months after contacting Voigts, and 3 months after receiving it.
So, whether it was the swarf, or the linkage, or both, the "grinding in 5th" issue is fixed. I also have a speedometer. And presumably a reverse light - more on that later.
Lessons learned:
The first is obvious if you've been following this thread - use a GPS speedo like Mr. OneOwner, or test out the speedo drive early on, and request an eccentric pinion holder if you don't get sufficient engagement of your speedo pinion with the worm gear. The Voigt's sent the pictured carrier quickly pretty quickly after I reported the problem (that they said I couldn't have), without me providing any measurements,making me think that this is a known issue and they have the part on the shelf ready to go. In any event, it fit perfectly and works great so far.
- Eccentric pinion carrier...
One of my challenges that I ran into when installing the T9 the first time was keeping it stable on the jack. This time I took a 1X8 and used a chisel to get a groove in the end that would sorta match the profile of the bottom of the 5th gear bearing carrier - the big aluminum piece between the case and the tail extension. I then tied that on in place. It wasn't perfect, but it was MUCH easier to control the transmission on the jack during the install.
- My "stability board"
- Ready to go on the jack...
When installing the first time, I broke off the contacts of the reverse light switch. I attributed that to the fact that the transmission was flopping around on the jack. This time I had better control, so less, basically no, flopping. I hooked up the harness before installing the tranny. What I found was that there was very little room in the tunnel for the connectors that the Voigt's sent - basically I couldn't get the transmission in without the connectors hitting the tunnel wall and getting knocked off the switch.
My solution was to make up L shaped connectors to replace the Voigt's straight ones. I took the female half of some connectors commonly sold at Autozone, cut out the metal part from the insulation, bent them at 90 deg so they were L shaped, crimped and soldered them onto the harness, and wrapped them in electrical tape. Half the challenge was getting their diameter "Mamma bear" just-right so they would fit snugly onto the switch. The L shape gave me just enough room to get them on the switch with the tranny loosely installed.
- Harness connector raw material...
- Connectors prior to wrapping
Other than that, the lessons learned were the "Doh" kind. Like, don't put the headers on before the bell housing bolts. Don't try to start the engine without the high tension wire hooked up. That sort of thing.
Yes, the shift throws are longer. Shorten the lever the Voigt's send - I've taken an inch off of mine and it's about right. If the stock tranny gets a 10 on shift feel, this one gets an 8, maybe a 7. But if you're going long distances on straight roads at 70 and above, that fifth is sure a nice thing to have.
I still have some fine tuning to do, and the gaiter/shift boot isn't on yet, but letting the clutch out in 5th and not get a grinding sound was certainly a milestone in this saga.
Steve