I wanted to see if I could reduce the play in the gear lever so the gears would stay in the desired location as I mentioned earluer. Since the detents were drilled so deep, the lever body was contacting the backside of the plunger ball since it was deeper than the radius, resulting in the large amount of play causing the gears to not be in the right spot. I couldn’t find any specs on how deep detents should be, I’m estimating roughly half the radius would be a good start. I like simple solutions before trying something more complicated, so instead of filling the detent and redrilling, I decided to make a “bullet” plunger and see if that would work. I made a piece the diameter of the threaded hole and then rounded the end where it contacts the detent. It reduced the play about in half, but still has more than I would like.
I contacted PM about the loose gear lever to see if they had come across the issue and see if they had any suggestions. I found out these detents are hand drilled at the factory, which explains why they could be so deep. I guess that is for alignment issues, I would have thought they would be drilled while the hole for the gear lever shaft was drilled. I emailed with Mike at PM and he suggested partially filling the detent slot to get the right depth where the ball will work, but I don’t think I would be able to get the depth consistent, so if I decide to do that, I will fill completely and then drill detent holes the right depth. For now, I am going to try my bullet and see how it works out, it might be good enough, or I might be updating this post at some point in the future.
I contacted PM about the loose gear lever to see if they had come across the issue and see if they had any suggestions. I found out these detents are hand drilled at the factory, which explains why they could be so deep. I guess that is for alignment issues, I would have thought they would be drilled while the hole for the gear lever shaft was drilled. I emailed with Mike at PM and he suggested partially filling the detent slot to get the right depth where the ball will work, but I don’t think I would be able to get the depth consistent, so if I decide to do that, I will fill completely and then drill detent holes the right depth. For now, I am going to try my bullet and see how it works out, it might be good enough, or I might be updating this post at some point in the future.