[DeTomaso] The coolest hardware ever!

[asajay at asajay.com]

Damn spiffy!  I'm sure the search is on now.

Asa Jay


Quoting MikeLDrew at aol.com:

> Hi guys,
>
> As many of you know, I'm in Paris helping a friend screw his Pantera together
> (it's been apart for almost 20 years, he's owned it for about ten, and
> hopefully it will be on the road later this year).   One of the joys  
>  of working on a
> car in another country is to broaden my horizons by seeing different tools
> and techniques that are used to accomplish various jobs.   Today one of our
> tasks was to install the shift linkage, which (for those of you who aren't
> intimately familiar) consists of a series of splined rods with   
> U-joints, culminating
> in at the shift lever, which is supported in a sort of yoke, and pivots on a
> pin.
>
> When all was said and done, I was highly dissatisfied with the finished
> result.   There was notable side-to-side play at the shift lever,   
> where the lever
> could be moved to either side a measurable amount before any motion was
> translated to the rods.
>
> We took the system apart, and found that there was visible play between the
> shifter bearings and the yoke which captures the shifter on each side.   What
> we needed was a precision washer to stick in there and take up the slack.   A
> quick rummage through the washer collection revealed that all the standard
> washers were simply too thick.
>
> Then Stephane had an "A-ha!" moment.
>
> Peelable washers!
>
> Uh, say what?
>
> Yup.   He has a friend who works at Peugot Sport, building Peugot's World
> Rally cars, and he gave Stephane a pile of trick hardware, including  
>  something
> I'd never heard of before--peelable washers.
>
> He showed me one, and to my eye it appeared to be nothing more than an
> ordinary metric washer.   In fact, it was comprised of TEN layers of  
>  ultra-thin
> material sandwiched together.   With an X-acto knife, Stephane was   
> able to remove
> one layer at a time, until we had a washer of EXACTLY the proper thickness to
> fix the problem, perfectly.
>
> I was just blown away, and whenever I'm blown away I reach for the digital
> camera:
>
> http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/PeelableWashers.jpg
>
> Stephane gave me a handful of these things, so I can tighten up my own
> shifter, plus the first one or two really messy ones that I come   
> across.   But my
> question is this--has anybody else ever seen these suckers, and does anybody
> know where to find them?
>
> Two definite thumbs up!!!
>
> Mike
>
>
>
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