Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
Hell's bells, it's confusing.
Yesterday I decided I was not at all happy with the Super Shifter in the Valiant. I'm not sure why, but the reverse gate was nearly impossible to engage. It may be the funky angles in the stick itself, which don't really facilitate pushing straight down very well. With no shortage of Hurst shifters around, I decided to go back to the crowd favorite, a standard aftermarket Competition Plus. As it happened, I have an aftermarket A-body-specific Comp Plus on hand and freshly rebuilt... 'twas the obvious choice, right?
Wrong.
I removed the Super Shifter and bolted in the A-body Comp Plus part, and got under the car to start connecting linkage. Being that 1-2 is always the bastard with these, I started with it. That went in OK, as did the reverse rod. When I tried to connect 3-4, though, I had a problem. The clip side of the swivel hit the 1-2 swivel. What the... ? That's new. I tried moving the 1-2 rod to the other side of the shifter lever but it hit the crossmember, which I'm not keen on hacking any further. Time for more research.
Looking at the installation kit for the aftermarket A-body shifter, I noticed three spacers that fit between the shifter bracket and transmission. Ah, yes... spacers that if I have, I'm unaware of their location. However, it occured to me that possibly the ITM mount from an OD transmission, which I discovered to be thicker, might just do the trick. Out I went to remove both shifter and bracket, then re-fitted the ITM mount. Not wanting to commit too hard, I installed the shifter using only the top bolt, which allowed it to dangle. Though I didn't actually connect anything, the rods aligned perfectly... excellent; time to commit.
Things went sideways on me here. I mounted the shifter correctly, and got back under the car to start connecting linkage rods. "Holy cow, I really need to move these swivels back." To get them to go into the shifter, they were almost off the ends of the rods.
Sumpin' aint right. Then I tried reverse, and it was literally too short--it would clip into the shifter with one thread engaged on the swivel. The factory Hurst OD rod is the right length, but doesn't fit the bushed shifter. The ITM rod was Goldilocks... but 'cept the swivel was hiding totally-hammered threads. It's scrap metal. The ITM shifter mount almost-imperceptibly rotates the shifter counter-clockwise, just enough that the Comp Plus/Super Shifter rods are too short, especially the reverse rod since the A-body factory and Comp Plus have a reverse lever that curves backward. The Super Shifter reverse lever is straight.
Remove shifter again, followed by the shifter mount again. Reinstall billet mount, then back into the garage to grab the "universal" Competition Plus--the one with the straight reverse lever. Once back outside, I compared the levers on all three shifters. Super Shifter and "universal" Comp Plus are identical. The A-body Comp Plus has the 1-2 lever moved so the swivel comes in from the other side. I installed the universal Comp Plus and everything went back together swimmingly, same as it was with the Super Shifter--whose reverse lockout works splendidly in the vise, so it almost has to be the wonky shifter stick.
The only real downside here, and I knew this going in, is that I've never gone through the uni Comp Plus. By the time I came to that solution, I was far from in the mood to rebuild a shifter, so I put it in as-is. It was not the cleanest thing in the garage, but it operates smoothly enough. The reverse detent is a little sticky but it's much easier to engage the wrong-way cog now.
I'm not taking it out to disassemble, clean, and lubricate it anytime soon. I'm freakin' done with shifters in this car for quite some time.
Yesterday I decided I was not at all happy with the Super Shifter in the Valiant. I'm not sure why, but the reverse gate was nearly impossible to engage. It may be the funky angles in the stick itself, which don't really facilitate pushing straight down very well. With no shortage of Hurst shifters around, I decided to go back to the crowd favorite, a standard aftermarket Competition Plus. As it happened, I have an aftermarket A-body-specific Comp Plus on hand and freshly rebuilt... 'twas the obvious choice, right?
Wrong.
I removed the Super Shifter and bolted in the A-body Comp Plus part, and got under the car to start connecting linkage. Being that 1-2 is always the bastard with these, I started with it. That went in OK, as did the reverse rod. When I tried to connect 3-4, though, I had a problem. The clip side of the swivel hit the 1-2 swivel. What the... ? That's new. I tried moving the 1-2 rod to the other side of the shifter lever but it hit the crossmember, which I'm not keen on hacking any further. Time for more research.
Looking at the installation kit for the aftermarket A-body shifter, I noticed three spacers that fit between the shifter bracket and transmission. Ah, yes... spacers that if I have, I'm unaware of their location. However, it occured to me that possibly the ITM mount from an OD transmission, which I discovered to be thicker, might just do the trick. Out I went to remove both shifter and bracket, then re-fitted the ITM mount. Not wanting to commit too hard, I installed the shifter using only the top bolt, which allowed it to dangle. Though I didn't actually connect anything, the rods aligned perfectly... excellent; time to commit.
Things went sideways on me here. I mounted the shifter correctly, and got back under the car to start connecting linkage rods. "Holy cow, I really need to move these swivels back." To get them to go into the shifter, they were almost off the ends of the rods.
Sumpin' aint right. Then I tried reverse, and it was literally too short--it would clip into the shifter with one thread engaged on the swivel. The factory Hurst OD rod is the right length, but doesn't fit the bushed shifter. The ITM rod was Goldilocks... but 'cept the swivel was hiding totally-hammered threads. It's scrap metal. The ITM shifter mount almost-imperceptibly rotates the shifter counter-clockwise, just enough that the Comp Plus/Super Shifter rods are too short, especially the reverse rod since the A-body factory and Comp Plus have a reverse lever that curves backward. The Super Shifter reverse lever is straight.Remove shifter again, followed by the shifter mount again. Reinstall billet mount, then back into the garage to grab the "universal" Competition Plus--the one with the straight reverse lever. Once back outside, I compared the levers on all three shifters. Super Shifter and "universal" Comp Plus are identical. The A-body Comp Plus has the 1-2 lever moved so the swivel comes in from the other side. I installed the universal Comp Plus and everything went back together swimmingly, same as it was with the Super Shifter--whose reverse lockout works splendidly in the vise, so it almost has to be the wonky shifter stick.
The only real downside here, and I knew this going in, is that I've never gone through the uni Comp Plus. By the time I came to that solution, I was far from in the mood to rebuild a shifter, so I put it in as-is. It was not the cleanest thing in the garage, but it operates smoothly enough. The reverse detent is a little sticky but it's much easier to engage the wrong-way cog now.
I'm not taking it out to disassemble, clean, and lubricate it anytime soon. I'm freakin' done with shifters in this car for quite some time.
