[DeTomaso] Gated Shifter or Not?

[Mike Drew]

Amen brother!

The shift linkage is infinitely adjustable if you adjust it properly—that is, by loosening the turnbuckle, positioning the shift lever appropriately, then tightening it again. It’s a bit of an art, as there is some torque involved so when you have the lever perfectly centered, then tighten it up, when you’re done it’s not centered anymore. If doing it by myself, I put it in 3rd gear, then wedge a flat screwdriver between the shift lever and one edge of the gate, forcing the lever hard into the other edge. After tightening everything, I withdraw the screwdriver and the lever moves sideways slightly, ending up perfectly centered. 

I can’t remember for sure if the screwdriver needs to go on the left or right side of the lever during this process. It will become apparent when you do it. The results will reveal that one side will be very right and the other obviously wrong...it’s a trial and error thing.

Mike

Sent from my iPad

> On Jan 27, 2020, at 17:11, audionut motonut <audionut at mediacombb.net> wrote:
> 
>    "Whoa!  Gated shifter!  Take that plate off right away!"
>  These words came at me one day not long after I bought my Pantera.  I
>  forget now who said them.
>  The reasoning, as I recall, was this:  the gate forced the shift lever
>  into an "in gear" position that placed stress on the shift linkage
>  which in turn placed stress on the internal gears thereby causing
>  premature gear wear.
>  Although this sounded like a possibility to me, I liked the gate and
>  didn't want to remove it.  I decided that this might only be a problem
>  if the linkage and the gate were not aligned well.
>  I took the car out for a drive and jiggled the shifter a bit in each
>  gear to determine if the lever was indeed being forced into an
>  unnatural position against its' will.
> 
>  Even though the shifter did indeed rest in contact with the gate in
>  each gear, it did not feel (to me) that it did so uncomfortably.  14
>  years later, the gate remains and my shifter is not being sawed in
>  half.  It is only lightly scratched.
>  Given that the Pantera was hand-built, variations in build quality were
>  inevitable from car to car.  Like many of the Pantera's well-known
>  issues, the "gate thing" may have been something common to earlier cars
>  that eventually was corrected by the factory.
> 
>  As we all know by now, the old horror stories never die--  apparently,
>  they are kept alive and well via word-of-mouth among car guys who know
>  jack doodly squat about Panteras.
>    __________________________________________________________________
> 
>  From: "Pantera Mail List" <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
>  To: "Corey Price" <coreyjprice at gmail.com>, "Pantera Mail List"
>  <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
>  Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2020 3:24:22 PM
>  Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] Gated Shifter or Not?
>  When I got my Pantera 33 years ago, the gate fingers were significantly
>  worn and the shift lever was nearly sawed halfway thru from rubbing
>  against the fingers.
>  I bought a new shift gate and shift lever when I had the car restored
>  but I couldn't bring myself to put the new shift gate so as to save the
>  new shift lever from getting scarred up.   I had read that some had
>  said it was easier to shift without fingers so I decided to saw off the
>  fingers from the original gate.   I told myself that I could install
>  the new shift gate whenever I wanted to show the car but I never did.
>  I found it very easy to shift through all the gears without the fingers
>  especially when shifting fast when I took the car on the track.
>  Tom5186
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: Corey Price <coreyjprice at gmail.com>
>  To: Detomaso List <detomaso at server.detomasolist.com>
>  Sent: Sun, Jan 26, 2020 4:32 pm
>  Subject: [DeTomaso] Gated Shifter or Not?
>  I'm sure there are tons of opinions on whether to retain the gated
>  shifter or to go "fingerless" but what do the experts say? In other
>  words, what do the prominent ZF rebuilders say about it?
>  Corey
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