This past weekend I modified my shift lever as per Mike Yach's instructions in the Legacy Central Library http://www.legacycentral.org/library/diy_ss.htm. It was fairly straightforward. I also rebent the shift lever to move the knob back more (I'm tall and have the seat way back so I have a long reach to the shifter). One thing I noticed is that the rubber bellows for the shift linkage to the transmission now rubs the top of the transmission tunnel. I sloted the mounting holes for rear mount for the shift lever pivot rod to lower the shifter down a bit so it wouldn't rub as much. We'll have to see how it holds up in the long run.
While I was at it, I also replaced the soft rubber bushing at the front of the shift lever pivot rod with a polyurethane bushing from Energy Suspensions. $15CDN! I was supprised it was so cheap. The bushing was not that hard to replace with the rod out of the car. I can't imaging trying to get the poly bushing in with the rod in the car
Anyway, the shift throws are much, much shorter now. It's taking some getting used to. The effort is somewhat higher. It's most noticeable on the 1/2 shift. If I were doing it again, I think I wouldn't have cut the threaded length of the rod at first just to see how I liked it like that. The bushing was absolutely worth it. Far less rubbery now.
How you did this in a weekend is beyond me! Seriously! I can pull off an axle change in a half-hour, but I probably spent 10 hours or more on just replacing my shifter bushings with new OEM ones... It's tight under there!!!
Anyway, the OEM bushings are such an improvement over NONE that I'm perfectly happy. Glad to hear your mod tightened yours up too...
This is not a 25-min job... To take out everything except the rod that goes into the transmission, which you HAVE to do on a 4WD to replace two bushings (the ones I needed to replace)... you have to hammer the pin out, easily a half-hour's worth of work. You then have to bonk the link off that rod, which took me probably another 20 min...
Then to reinstall that link and put the pin back in correctly is almost an HOUR, and then to reinstall the rest of the shifter is another half-hour...
Granted I work a bit slow, but these cars are too old for stuff to slide right off. There is years of heat shrink and corrosion under there!
Nigel wrote:While I was at it, I also replaced the soft rubber bushing at the front of the shift lever pivot rod with a polyurethane bushing from Energy Suspensions. $15CDN! I was supprised it was so cheap. The bushing was not that hard to replace with the rod out of the car. I can't imaging trying to get the poly bushing in with the rod in the car
I am planning on this modification as well-- can you tell me what part you ordered from Energy Suspensions? I couldn't figure it out from their website.
that I'm perfectly happy. Glad to hear your mod tightened yours up too... 
