Solid Snake

From what I've read, zero slop, heat resistance, long life and lower price are the big selling points here. What's not to like?

now... where to buy?

Marine Blue

If you're handy and can easily remove the exhaust, all heat sheilds and everything else in the way then you're right. For someone like me which is mechanically limited this ended up being a pricey undertaking involving the assistance of a friend/mechanic.

Would I do it again, probably not since I'm going after originality. But from a performance aspect it sure is hard to beat. I actually thought of a much better design for Carl but I haven't had the chance to talk to him about it.

Mrmerlin

I would strongly recommend the new part made by Carls fine machine shop, I have personally installed this part on a customers car and the factory piece is just a piece of junk compared to the Carl replacment,
Its a lil difficult to install with the TT in the car but once its in then it is a part that you will never have to fix or worry about again. This requires the exhaust and heat shield to be removed. The Nylon bushing gets soft when the drivline gets hot, and so after a while the part fails if there is a lot of force applied to the shifting sytam especially during racing situtaions

Solid Snake

Exhaust bolts are soaking in liquid wrench as I type this. It doesn't look like such a tough job. I'm thinking now is a good time to look at wideband 02 sensors and aftermarket cats.

Still no info on how to buy this thing?

Solid Snake

After some distractions, I was able to concentrate on the car again. I ordered Carl's part which arrived promptly.

Most of the exhaust bolts didn't cooperate. I removed them either by kicking a ratchet or via rotozip cutting wheel. The exhaust is sitting my garage awaiting a wideband O2 sensor bung. I'll take care of that later this week.

So where I left off last time, I had Carl's part threaded into the pivot shaft as far as I could, but after I locked it onto the ball, it proved not to be far enough. I could only shift into R, 2 and 4. I put the old part back in to see how far I could screw it in and sure enough, it went in all the way. Sure, I could take a wrench and really torque the metal part in, but since I was doing an in-car installation, it had to be loose enough that I could work it the other way with my fingers, and that wasn't happening. After fiddling around a bit, I took wire brush wheel to the threads and removed some material. It was enough that I could now easily screw the part into the threaded rod.

The supplied directions weren't of much use for an in-car installation. What I found to be useful is this:

1. Remove the threaded part from the ball socket.
2. Thread all but 0.5" into the rod.
3. Place the end of the threaded part onto the ball and check the inside of the car for the proper spacing.
4. Screw it in about 3 more turns.
5. Screw the cup onto the thread about 2 turns.
6. Lock the two nuts together to give you something to turn by hand.
7. Place the socket on top of the ball and turned the two locked nuts with your finger until there is no play.
8. Find some way to tighten the lock nut tightly...

Does such a midget wrench exist? Nothing in my toolbox can really go around the TT.

At the same time I got a short shifter from 928 intl. It's a fantastic piece! Unfortunately, I decided to install it after I had tediously installed Carl's part and realized that if the front and rear pivot points are out of alignment a fraction of a degree, installing a shifter with all four bushings is just about impossible.

So I went back under the car, undid Carl's piece so that the front mount could move enough to let me install the shifter, finally got all 4 bushings and the 2 clips on. Then back under the car to reinstall that ball cup.

I got the **** back on along with the boot, and I have to say, the shifting is amazing. As everyone says, like a whole new car!

Unfortunately I noticed cracks developing on my windshield around the rear view mirror. That, and a centipede crawled out from behind the fuse panel. I'm not sure which bothers me more.

Before the shark goes back on the road, I'm also installing an AEM wideband O2 meter. I'm considering putting it either in the glove box or in place of the clock.

Jadz928

Soild Snake,
Thanks for the writeup. And you're right, the 4 bushings are a PITA. So are you saying the supplier's ball cup thd rod is too long? Is it visibly longer the the OEM?

Solid Snake

Soild Snake,
Thanks for the writeup. And you're right, the 4 bushings are a PITA. So are you saying the supplier's ball cup thd rod is too long? Is it visibly longer the the OEM?

No, it's not longer but the fit into the pivot rod is way too snug. I'm not sure if I remember correctly, but the part has some kind of special coating on it. I think it's this coating that makes it just barely too big to be able to thread in by hand easily. If I had the TT out of the car, I could just crank it with a wrench or something, but there's no way I could spin it by hand from underneath the car. I could thread in the stock part freely, so there wasn't any obstruction in the pivot rod. I took a rotozip with a wire wheel to the threads and the yellowish coating came off to expose the steel. After taking a bit of material off, the part threaded in nicely.

Have any of you guys installed a shifter with all four bushings without detaching either the front or rear pivots? I'm scared to death of swapping the shifter in another shark only to find the pivots are one degree off like mine were. Granted, it wasn't a huge deal for me since I had the exhaust out which made detaching the ball cup easy, but what would I do on a shark with all its guts together? I wouldn't even be able to get the stocker back on!

Why can't we have simple one piece bushings that fit on the inside part of the shifter, that extend through its entire length. Then we can just use simple plastic washers on the clip end. Are you listening 928intl?

Solid Snake

By the way, how did you guys tighten the nuts on the ball cup? I'm considering a crowfoot wrench with a long extension.

Jadz928

I thought the same thing. I think the person you need to ask would be Ketchmi (Dave Lomas at 928 Motorsport). I think he does the design and mfg.

Marine Blue

Dave C used a crowes foot wrench to tighten mine as much as possible although we both agreed that red locktite is a good idea since it is so difficult to get enough leverage/room to properly tighten everything. We also noted similar difficulties you did when installing the new ball cup.

Solid Snake

The only thing that worries me about the locktite is vibration if it doesn't happen to be tight enough, or if I have to remove it for some reason. My plan right now is to just get the exhaust up by three or four bolts, leave the shields off and run it through the gears and RPMs to make sure I don't get any resonant vibrations. Then if everything checks out OK, I'll lift it back up, continue fastening the exhaust and put all the shields back on.

Marine Blue

Unfortunately I won't be able to offer any long term feedback on the Red Locktite since this was on my 87 which is now sold.