This only applies to 2wd coupes and 4000's - you may have to modify the concept for other cars. Read the whole thing first, you may want to make some sketches or notes before doing some of the steps and I don't warn you which ones. 1. Remove the shift knob, boot, and center console trim pieces as necessary to expose the gearshift lever and the shift rod in the passenger compartment. Remove the circlip, the spring, unbolt the gearshift lever bearing housing from its support and remove it. 2. It really helps to have a lift but you can do this from the ground with a couple of ramps if necessary. For random chance's sake be careful! Crushed heads are cool in movies, but they hurt in real life. Locate the shift rod where it comes through the floor pan and is attached by a clamp to what they call the "finger" - the cross shaped part of the linkage. Mark the rod so you can put it in the same distance and at the same rotation later. Get in there with a 13mm wrench and socket and loosen the bolt holding the clamp. The rod should pop right out. 3. Back inside car. It's awkward, but you now undo the nut on the bolt holding the lever and the rod together. It's a special nut, and a special bolt. Don't lose them. The lever is now out of the car. To remove the rod I had to slide it forward to clear the bearing support and then lift it up and pull it out. 4. Get out your 12mm x 1.5 die, put it in a vise and start carefully turning the lever into it. I managed to do this part with a wrench on the square stuff at the other end of the lever. Use cutting oil, go slowly, and add about an inch of threads to the lever. Figure out how much shorter you want the lever (you can always go further later...) and with the die still on cut off that much of the end of the lever (I removed about 3/4"). Then remove the die, this will clean the threads you may have gouged with your hacksaw. 5. Put the shift rod in a vise on your drill press and drill holes through both sides, the same size as the original holes, about 1/2" above the originals. Deburr them and check for the fit of the special bolt. 6. I bent the rod a little more than it already is, comparing it to a spare part, so that with the new holes aligned with the originals on the other part, the end that clamps to the finger was at exactly the same angle so nothing would get mucked up. 7. As they say, assembly is the reverse of disassembly. The tricky part is aligning the rod with the finger so all your gears are accessible. An assistant can really help here. Make sure Reverse will engage properly, since that special bolt has to engage the reverse stop before the shifter will move into the right position. 8. I had to cut off a portion of the plastic tube inside the boot to fit the boot down over the now-shorter lever. Of course my leather boot came from some other car, so you may not experience this problem. My install was a relative success, all the gears work, as does the reverse stop (it forces you to push down on the lever to engage reverse). I find if I push down on the knob when disengaging reverse I hit metal (I think it is my amplifier ground ring terminal...) but it is not necessary to push down anyway. Fifth and reverse seem a lot closer, which is nice, they were such a reach before. Effort doesn't seem to be much greater either. I would recommend you at least replace the shift rod boot while you're in there. That is pretty simple. Rebuilding the Rube Goldberg linkage with new soft parts is a bit more trouble but well worth it, especially if your car is as old as mine. Part numbers for this stuff are on the diagram page. Have fun! |
