Some Technical Tips for GTV-6 Owners
by Frank Maldari
AONE Director
I recently restored my GTV-6 and decided to take the time to remedy a couple of problems that were always lurking but never bad enough to bother fixing.
Rattle in the Shifter
The first problem I addressed was a rattle in the shifter that only seemed to act up when accelerating in fifth gear. I tracked down the noise to the shift fork linkage. To get at this assembly, I first had to drop the exhaust from the down pipes to the rear exhaust section. The most difficult part about this job is that the lower studs on the headers, which hold the down pipes in place, tend to be rusty and strip easily. If you do strip them, be prepared to remove the complete header to replace the studs. The bolts holding the down pipes to the headers have to be removed form underneath. Once the exhaust was off, I removed the heat shield. The shift fork linkage is right behind this panel. In my car, the assembly is held together with a simple screw, bushing, and self-locking nut. The source of the rattle was a vibration due to the loose tolerance between the shift fork and the shaft. I fabricated two plastic washers from a milk jug and reassembled the linkage, placing the washers between the inside faces of the shift fork and the shaft bushing. This effectively eliminated any lateral play between the fork and shaft bushing and hence eliminated the vibration from the shifter.
Intermittent Taillights
The second problem I attacked was that, during cold weather, the rear taillight lamps would work intermittently. I had already eliminated the possibility of a short, connector, bulb or socket problem. To investigate further, I removed the entire taillight assembly, reflector and all. The printed circuit board, which holds the lights, can be removed from the reflector by moving two plastic tabs to the side and sliding the board out. Upon inspection, I discovered that the lamp sockets are swaged to the contacts on the printed circuit board and that a few of the swages were corroded. To re-establish a solid electrical contact, I filed off the corrosion on the swage and some of the protective finish on the socket and soldered the swage to the socket and to the etch on the printed circuit board side. The filing was necessary because the solder did not adhere to the finish applied to the metal on the sockets. For good measure, I soldered all the swages on both sides of the board and on the opposite taillight assembly. Since reassembly, I have not had any problems with the lamps on the taillights.
