I've got a 2012 pony 7 speed 17.5hp 42" and I've battled with the F-N-R shifter on a few occasions. Over time the base of the vertical shifter shaft wears a ring and becomes sloppy, causing me to have to weld some more metal in so it tightens back up. A replaceable bushing would have been nice in that spot (i know not to expect a bearing on a budget model). However that issue has been overcome as mentioned above. I'm a welder, no problem.
What I'm not pleased about is the swing around pivoting design. It would have worked SO MUCH better if it were on a left to right shift rod that followed the action of the axle input. It could have pivoted in the middle to make the throw very short, would have been great...... But it wasn't and this creates the issue of it being tricky to adjust so it goes into gear and STAYS in gear. There is an adjustment nut at the pivot point that allows minor adjustments which do more to keep it from rattling out of gear than to put it into gear. I've adjusted it many times and the best balance I've gotten is that it goes into gear with a firm approach on the shifter, and stays in gear at lower speeds, but above 4th gear tends to rattle out of drive into neutral.
Hence why I'm asking here.... Has anyone played around with these shifters enough to have either modified or found a happy place where you can still get it into drive, but it doesn't rattle back out at higher speeds? Would changing the used input shifter sleeve where it goes into the axle to a fresh new one help?
What I'm not pleased about is the swing around pivoting design. It would have worked SO MUCH better if it were on a left to right shift rod that followed the action of the axle input. It could have pivoted in the middle to make the throw very short, would have been great...... But it wasn't and this creates the issue of it being tricky to adjust so it goes into gear and STAYS in gear. There is an adjustment nut at the pivot point that allows minor adjustments which do more to keep it from rattling out of gear than to put it into gear. I've adjusted it many times and the best balance I've gotten is that it goes into gear with a firm approach on the shifter, and stays in gear at lower speeds, but above 4th gear tends to rattle out of drive into neutral.
Hence why I'm asking here.... Has anyone played around with these shifters enough to have either modified or found a happy place where you can still get it into drive, but it doesn't rattle back out at higher speeds? Would changing the used input shifter sleeve where it goes into the axle to a fresh new one help?