LS1Porch

I have some sort of an aftermarket short shifter that i installed a short while ago (it came with my last car, so i don't know what kind it is). It had been working perfectly fine on the "longer throw" setting for about 15k miles, but recently i decided to move it to the "short throw" setting. It worked great for a while (about 1k miles), but now i've got a sloppy shifter!

Really sloppy, like, it has about 1" of full side-to-side motion while it's in gear.

I checked all the bolts on the shifter and the rod. There doesn't seem to be any difference in the motion of the shifter with the movement of the shift linkage (in other words, i don't think the bullet nose bolts broke off or anything...).

I had the shifter up at the **** off no more than 3k miles ago and it was in perfect shape, so i don't really think it's "football" shaped. Just to be sure i stuck my finger down in there (i hate pulling the black rubber boot off!) and it feels solid.

So what does that leave? While the transmission is in gear i can push the rod coming out of the transmission in about 1/8". Not sure if that's normal or not. So...i'm all ears! What's left to check?

Black51

Well if the pin on the shifter isn't "football shaped", did you check the inside of the whole where the wrist pin slides into on the shift tube?

LS1Porch

I'm a little confused, are you talking about up at the shifter? Saying that maybe the shifter pin wore out the really long shift rod?

If that's what you're saying, that's a possibility i suppose!

JohnKoaWood

Also check the bolt at the rear of the shift rod hasn't worked loose... the bolt is in the side of the shift rod at the linkage on the transaxle.

It is the forward most bolt in this pic, where the black rod connects to the linkage.

LS1Porch

Yeah, i checked all of the bolts circled by green here: (I think that's all of them!)



I'm pretty certain that there's no play anywhere in the linkage back there. I guess the next step is going to be to pull that darn rubber boot off in the console and see if there's something really wrong with the shift lever....

KuHL 951

The short kit has a spherical bearing with a teflon lining. Have you checked to make sure the lining hasn't cracked and fallen out? To get that sloppy so fast would make me suspect the SS kit. If the slop does turn out to be at the shift tube up front the Dieters repair is great.

Sloppy Shifter Repair

ritzblitz

One thing to be sure of is that the aforementioned bolt is actually fastened into the hole on linkage rod. It could be sliding back and forth on the rod if it isn't in correctly. Also, Black51 is talking about the black rod that attaches to the shifter. The one with the horizontally mounted tube which the wrist pin slides through.

LS1Porch

Good point about checking the heim joint on the short shift kit. I'll take a look at that!

@Ritzblitz: i think i checked that pretty well. I actually had one of the bolts come out on the track, so i replaced and safety-wired them both and had no issues after that.

I'm leaning towards issues at the shifter handle at this point. I don't really remember the change in shifting being instantaneous, but it did happen fairly quickly. The weekend is coming up, so hopefully i'll have some time to take a good look at all of it...

I guess it would make sense that 1mm of play at the handle could translate to a lot more in the feel of it....