[DeTomaso] Shifters are not created equal
clay willmott
claywillmott at hotmail.com
Tue Dec 16 13:04:40 EST 2008
Thanks.
I may just get the old one TIG welded then as the rod is from 1971. In the mean time I will try to shim the new slimmer shifter with clutch shims if they will fit.
I did mention the year though as an early 71.
A difference of this small magnitude at the pin/snap rings does give slightly more than 0.5 cm free side to side movement at the stem of the shifter without moving the forked shift rod holder for those wondering--- Even more if you measure at the end of the shift knobs. It seems prudent to fix this first prior to adjusting the whole shift rod system to prevent the gated shifter from notching in the future.
Clay
From: JDeRyke at aol.com
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:44:02 -0500
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Shifters are not created equal
To: claywillmott at hotmail.com; detomaso at realbig.com
In a message dated 12/16/08 8:51:09 AM, claywillmott at hotmail.com writes:
My old shifter that came with the car has a 40% full thickness notch from the prior owner. I thought of welding and re-chroming but it appears hard to remove the brass bushing without damaging them. Any tricks here? Will they melt if I weld it without removing first?
I took the stick out and TIG-welded the notch with stainless steel rod. TIG puts far less heat into a given piece, so no problems; didn't even catch the grease on fire. In addition, filing and grinding the stainless weld down gave a filled area that polished out to look very similar to the chromed stick, without any rechroming.
You don't mention what year your car is, but post-80s wide body cars may have a stick thats built differently while looking the same as early sticks. One owner of an '87 GT5-S tried my weld-it-up trick and found his stock stick was not a solid piece. Instead, his late piece was made of 5 or more layers of steel strip, edge-welded together then ground and polished. So when he attempted to fill the notch which had cut thru several of the strips, the strips separated from the heat, cracking the plating above and below the notch and ruining the whole stick. He also found that a used early stick (bought at an outrageous price) fit his late car perfectly. FWIW- J Deryke
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