as the title says, 4130 chrome-moly steel or 6061-T6 for making lightweight shift linkages. also throw in there 6061-T0 and 7075 aluminum for ***** and giggles. 7075 has just as great tensile/working/shear loads as lower-grade irons and such. i have access to lots of nice machines . . .

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 95lstegman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">as the title says, 4130 chrome-moly steel or 6061-T6 for making lightweight shift linkages. also throw in there 6061-T0 and 7075 aluminum for ***** and giggles. 7075 has just as great tensile/working/shear loads as lower-grade irons and such. i have access to lots of nice machines . . .</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd go with either 6061-T6 or 7075.

Further, I'd go with the 6061 for cost.

 

me too, i'd love to say 6061, preferably tensile-6, for the cost, but i don't know if that's strong enough. stock ones are beefy steel stuff, so i wasn't sure how much stress would be put on them

 

You might get a little flex with the 6061, but I wouldn't see it being a problem.

Just don't weld it, you'll lose the temper if you get it hot.

 

i'll have to sit down with a materials website and my calculator and some paper and see. what i'd love to do is make it from aluminum tube, for ultimate lightness. that'll probably require 7075, but i think i may be able to shell out for just tubular, not bar. i'm thinking 3/16" walled 3/4" or 1" 7075, but then i'd have to weld on some custom end fittings. making them wouldn't be a problem, but i'd be afraid of the tube breaking at the end then. i may have to go with tubular 4130 or 4340 steel or something. i wonder if the stock linkages are solid or tubular . . . i'm not going to cut mine apart to find out! anybody know?

 

Do yuou mean the actual linkage going to the tranny?

edit: the shifter is solid, the shift linkage is tube...not sure about the stabalizer linkage.

 

both bars are tubular and actually pretty thin... in all honesty... how much weight do u plan on saving? the stock linkage really is pretty light... to make it out of 4130 imo would be a waste

 

You probably only need 4130 tubing that's about 0.060" thick. It doesn't take much. And a pipe with that wall thickness should only be ~2 lbs.

 

thanks guys. i didn't know the stock bars were thin tubes. in that case i'll probably stick with aluminum. i just remember removing them once and they weren't light, and since i now have access to a machine shop, i figured i'd like to start out with a project. i think i'll go aluminum and make plugs for the ends to strengthen the ends so i can weld proper fittings onto the ends.

 

Steel is roughly 3 times heavier than Aluminum, 3 times stronger than Aluminum, and cheaper.

If you use Aluminum, you're going to have to have a thicker wall and it will cost more.

Just food for thought.

Don't forget the bend you need in there too. Aluminum doesn't bend too well. You need a metal that will bend a bit and stay there. SOmething that doesn't have too much spring to it. There's some technical name for it but I forget.

BTW I used 0.75" OD, 0.065" WallThickness 4130 Alloy pipe for my rear upper strut bar. Just to give you an idea.