L-Body Short Throw Shifter

[86Shelby]

I made myself a shorter throw shifter for my GLHS. I grabbed a spare shifter from a yard so my car wouldn't have much downtime. At first thought I figured I'd have to cut as weld the shifter itself, but as it turns out there is no need to cut anything! Here's a step by step how to do this yourself. Doing it this way my shift throw is just under 4". I'm not sure what it was before since there were other wornout/broken components in my linkage which were repaired at the time of the shifter installation.

1. Take the shifter out of your car. Be sure to remove the three nuts underneath the car which hold the metal bracket on that keeps you out of reverse before you remove the three bolts from inside the car which hold the shifter to the floor. You do not need to remove the metal rod on the bottom which is bent at 90^.
   
2. Put the shifter on a bench and take a good long look at it to get familiar with it. Take the shifter knob off if you haven't already.
   
3. Remove the two rivets which hold the two metal plates together. Watch out because the plates could come popping apart once the rivets are not holding them together!!
   
4. Take it apart. you will find two plastic half-ball pieces, two washers, two springs, one wavy washer and one roll pin. Remove the roll pin with a punch and hammer do not lose it. Lay the peices out so you can remember which way they go back together.
   
5. Find a drill bit which is the same size as the hole the roll pin was in. Drill a hole the same size through the shifter rod 1" closer to the shift knob as compared to the original hole. The roll pin will now go in this hole upon reassembly.
   
6. Reassemble unit. I used some wheel bearing grease to relube the unit since I totally cleaned mine and bead blasted all the components and painted it nicely. The shifter should go back together pretty easily, though it may take some patience to get the ball halves lined up correctly. You will need either some rivets to replace the two you removed or two small screws and nuts to hold the two plates together.
   
7. Put the unit back in the car. You will need to get three 1" spacers and three 60mm long 8x1.25mm bolts. I used washers taped together to act as spacers. Remember to put the rubber sealing gasket/boot down first or you will get a lot of road noise from the counsol. This is the order: floor, gasket/boot, spacers, shifter assy.
   
8. Adjust the shift linkage as the manual tells you and button your interior back up and you are ready to go.

Later,
Ray

[moparfwdsleeper]

Added to the turbododge.com FAQ Article Section!