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Paddleshift push/pull cable sticking
Digimon - 15/7/13 at 08:24 AM

Hi Guys,

I did a track day yesterday in the MNR after about 30mins non stop the paddle's started to stick. Has anyone had this problem before?

The problem didn't go away once the car cooled down, I have to push the paddle's back to return them to the neutral position for the next gear change

Thanks
Simon

eddie99 - 15/7/13 at 08:40 AM

Does the cable run near anything hot? We get this problem when cable gets too hot

edsco - 15/7/13 at 09:55 AM

I had this on the race car couple of weeks back at Donny. It has been fine until then. The problem lies, like Eddie says, if the cable gets hot the teflon lining can crease in the heat and cause the cable to appear sticky thus jamming it right up to the point you two hands on the paddles to change gear. Once it cools, im afraid it will not rectify itself. The damage has been done already. New cable time! When you buy your next cable, be sure to check what the operating min and max values are and be sure not to scrimp on it as it will or could happen again. Invest the extra ££ to get a cable with a much high operating temp.

Whilst my cable in its routing through the engine bay hasn't caused any issues before, the ambient temp was in the 20's plus latent engine bay temps caused the cable to deform halfway through a race. So it can happen even if it has been fine before. I'd put money on the fact it was a hot day where you were when it went wrong.

Solution: re route your cable away from anything that gets super hot and where it cant be avoided, at least shroud it in that heat sleeve protection stuff. This is a job i need to rectify myself before Silverstone.....

leon51274 - 15/7/13 at 10:07 AM

I have had this very same problem. Anyone got some advice of where is the best place to buy good quality cables?

Cheers
Leon

mark chandler - 15/7/13 at 12:23 PM

I had this on a throttle cable, in the end I replaced with a push bike rear brake cable as no liner, suggest you check out ships chandlers for Bowden cables.

edsco - 15/7/13 at 12:34 PM

Cable-tec do good cables, but like i said before.....be aware of any heat source near by to it....coz no cable is 100% guaranteed against heat.

Digimon - 15/7/13 at 01:52 PM

Thanks for all the reply's guys, we have traced the problem back to the quick shifter jamming up. Looks like I will have to change the way I have got the quick shifter mounted

edsco - 15/7/13 at 02:48 PM

Ah the old 'quick shifter' issue!

Hang on....arent Quick Shifters electrical? Why have you got a push pull cable? Im confused. Easily done but still....confused.
Surely the gear change mechanism is all mechanical if using a cable isnt it?

Digimon - 15/7/13 at 02:55 PM

Its a hall effect sensor type quick shifter, I still haven't got it setup yet but that's next job on the list


renetom - 15/7/13 at 05:34 PM

Try paddle & linkage
No problems.

hobbsy - 15/7/13 at 07:05 PM

quote:
Originally posted by edsco
Ah the old 'quick shifter' issue!

Hang on....arent Quick Shifters electrical? Why have you got a push pull cable? Im confused. Easily done but still....confused.
Surely the gear change mechanism is all mechanical if using a cable isnt it?


Ed - a quick shifter alone just senses the gear change and cuts the ignition so you don't have to lift off the throttle.

You're thinking of a power shifter which uses a linear actuator or similar to actually make the shift and you just press buttons. This will often be used with or already incorporate a quick shifter.

The quick shifter has to be part of the shift mechanism whether it uses solid rods or a cable - so it going massively stiff messed up the OPs cable change.