Do you have a gap below the shift ball?

[Elp_jc]

Okay guys, finally got home, and the first project of the day was to deal with the stupid ball. Ha ha. Removed it, and it only had 6 turns. Plenty of unused threads inside the ball, so put it back again, and I was only able to give it about 1/4 turn more, which required quite a bit of force, so no freaking way an additional 3/4s was in the cards. Removed it again, and tapped it as deep as I could, which was about a turn more, before the tap bottomed out at the end of the cavity. Could only give the knob 7 turns, so only an additional one. There's still a visible gap. Since threads are not the problem, that means either the ball or the shift shaft have tapered threads. Which ones do you guys think it is??? If it's the knob, I could sand down the top threads on the shaft, so the ball can screw in deeper. Let me know what you guys think. By the way, I need 2 full turns more, to be more or less flush with the reverse lockout.

As a final thought, maybe the differences are with the lockouts, no? Mine might be seating lower than others, thus opening a gap below the ball. But rather not mess with that .

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[P8K]

Plenty of unused threads inside the ball,

Do you know what type of a Tap you're using, a Tapper tap, bottom tap or thread chaser?
Do you have a pitch gauge? That shift ball should ideally bottom out if you're using the correct size thread chaser.
Other than that I have nothing else. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ best of luck to you

 

[Elp_jc]

The tap was an 11mm x 1.5, which is the thread size. The taps are tapered; that's why they bottom out way before the full size threads. And I think that just answered my question. The ball must be tapered, since that extra turn on the tap allowed me to thread the ball an extra turn as well. That means if I sand the top threads of the shaft, I must be able to thread the knob a bit deeper... but not sure I want to do that. I only like to mess with easily replaceable items, like the ball.

Another option would be to turn the ball little by little, tighter and tighter, and reversing it every time, like if it was a tap. I might try to do that and see if I can at least thread it one turn more. Wonder how strong is the shift mechanism; don't want to damage anything down there.

EDIT: Decided to sand the threads of the shaft a little; no harm in that. Could go one more turn. Will do it again to hopefully go another more. Hope the shifter is robust enough .

EDIT 2: Did one more turn, which didn't completely eliminate the gap, but it's minimal now (probably about 1/2 turn). Not going to go for a 3rd additional turn, since my hands are already blistered. You can only see the gap if you get your head very close and under the knob, so it doesn't bother me at all anymore. Project is over now .

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