Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 3,329 Threads: 372
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I need to bend a standard 4 speed lever a tad in its mid/upper section to clear dash 'tap' on selecting 1st.
Will a bbq aerosol gas torch be enough to heat it, and what must I do for cooling - just bend in situ as it gets dull red, and then let cool naturally?, or will I need to adopt more stringent measures to stop it flopping?
I don't want to muck anything up...!
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 1,230 Threads: 33
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Location: Salop
Car type: '28 GE Cup. '28 AD Chummy '30 RL Saloon. '34 RP Saloon. Too Many toys!
I'd be surprised if a straight aerosol torch (propane/butane) would get it hot enough, but you never know until you try. One of those swanky MAPP torches probably would.
Joined: May 2018 Posts: 2,105 Threads: 110
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Location: Llandrindod Wells
Car type: 29 Special, 30 RK, 28 C Cab
Hi Jon
I’ve bent a gear lever cold using a tube extension as leverage and a good vice.
Cheers
Howard
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Thanks both. Ok, well there are two things now for me to try! It doesn't need much.
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Location: Essex
22-03-2021, 02:26 PM
(This post was last modified: 22-03-2021, 02:27 PM by Nick Lettington.)
In order to get the flat steel for my roof hot enough to bend, I pushed a length of scaffold tube over the flat held in a vice and fired a basic plumbers blow lamp into the end. The scaffold tube shields the flame allowing the steel to get much hotter... and it's simple to slip it back a touch and pull the bend.
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I did mine with a Mapp gas torch. Let it all cool nice and slowly.
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Location: On a hill in Wiltshire
If possible, avoid putting strain on the lower part of the lever.
Put the bend in the upper straight bit, clamping it above the bend.
Not aesthetically the best place.
But gear levers are known to break, if they are going to, it is somewhere in the lower 3 inches or so.
Joined: Aug 2017 Posts: 502 Threads: 13
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You cannot beat heating it sufficiently it will bend easily and not break later.
Pay a visit to a chum or a garage that has gas bottles, it would be cheap.
Bending it cold you risk breaking it.
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Location: Darkest Bedfordshire
Jon, when I bent mine I found a propane torch wasn't up to the job.
I made a mini-furnace by burning a few coals in an old flowerpot and arranging a couple of bricks around to bounce heat back.
Then used the propane torch to fan the coals, that will do it nicely!
I've also used an electric hot air gun (paint stripper) to get coals glowing bright in the past.
You only need to get a short section red and it will bend easily. This also helps to keep the bend in the right place.
Arrange in advance some means of gauging whether you have bent it the right amount e.g. mark a reference line on something so you can compare before and after.
I've had gear levers break off twice - once driving home from an MOT test, the other time in the wilds of Sweden. Yes, they crack from the circlip groove.
