Save Time And Money | Transmission Lever Swap Out

06. We then began cutting the arm off. In his video, Conrad recommended using Dremel's 420 and/or 540 cutting wheels. The 540s are bigger and would need to be ground down to fit the tight space but can cut through much easier. Of course we only found cutting wheels labeled "heavy duty" at our local hardware store. These wheels were very thin and brittle and we burned/broke through more than a dozen of them. We would definitely advise following Conrad's recommendations.

07. So here is what's left of the lever after we cut the arm off. We then had a little bit more wiggle room to start cutting down the backside of the lever (arrow).

08. When cutting, our objective was to cut most of the way through and try to avoid cutting into the shift shaft as much as possible.

09. We needed to make sure to cut the complete width of the lever. So when cutting the side closest to the transmission (arrow), we used a piece of scrap wood as a wedge between the lever and the trans. Once we had cut the majority of the way through, we used the screwdriver to pry the lever apart. We also used the magnet to catch the cut-off piece of the lever.

10. We then used the magnet and our hand to remove what was left of the lever.

11. After cleaning up the area, we were ready to install the Better Lever. The lever is designed so that when installed properly it creates a clamp, as seen here. By flipping the bottom piece around, it would make a complete circle and wouldn't create the proper clamping force.

12. To install the lever, we simply applied some red thread locker onto the bolts then installed the longer of the two mounting bolts into the hole on the backside (facing the rear wheel). We then threaded the bolt into the bottom piece a couple of turns and slipped the assembly over the shaft.

13. We then aligned the lever on the shaft and lightly tightened it up to check we had the proper throw to upshift and downshift. Next, we snugged up the rear bolt to bring the two pieces together. We then snugged up the front bolt and fully tightened the rear followed by the front. Once again, we used a socket on the Allen wrench to get a good torque on the bolts. We also re-installed the shift linkage, and we were done.

14. A testride revealed that the lever worked perfectly, and we haven't had any issues. One of our local dealers said it does maybe one a month and it takes about three hours and costs around $500-600 to pull the primary and replace the lever with another stock unit. With the right tools (cutting wheels), it's a pretty straightforward swap. If you do it yourself, you can definitely save a lot of money and could easliy be done in 90 minutes or less.