FRUNKenstein

As some of you may recall, when I bought my current car last fall, it came with a very fugly shift lever that I've come to unaffectionately refer to as the "Meg Griffin" model.





It is surpassed in ugliness only by the shifter that was on my '99 C4 Aero when I bought it:



But, I was able to quickly replace the one on my '99 and now I've bought a replacement shift **** for my current car. Unfortunately, ol' Meg Griffin isn't going down without a fight. Last night, I went to install the new shift ****, which is a stock carbon fiber model I got from LA Dismantlers, and I discover this:



I knew there was an aftermarket shifter (looks like a B&M), but I assumed that under the boot was a standard flat lever that a stock **** will fit on. Pretty much every aftermarket shift kit I see has the flat shift lever. Not this one - it is a round, one-piece, very long lever. I searched around the internet and it is apparently called a B&M Trak Shifter. It looks to me like a regular short shift kit but with the longer shift lever. I called B&M to see if they sold a replacement lever, but they really didn't know anything about this Trak Shifter and I don't see them listed anywhere on their website.

So, any thoughts on what to do? Bite the bullet and just buy an entirely new short shift kit? Damn, I really hate to do that after spending the $$ for the stock carbon fiber **** (at least I got it used, but still not cheap). That's a lot of money just to get rid of an ugly ****. Do you think it's possible to swap out just the lever, which maybe I can salvage from an old shifter someone is throwing out?

vitaminC

You could look for a used 997 shifter assembly; they aren't too expensive.

DFWCanuck

Pm me. I have something in my garage that could help. And the price is right.

ditto

A machine shop could graft a stock shaft and **** into the current shaft. The seam could be under the boot so you don't see it.

kmagnuss

x2

5CHN3LL

You might not even need a machine shop - it looks like the shaft is significantly longer than the standard shifter; can you just cut it off with a chop saw or band saw at the appropriate point and then use a die grinder or bench grinder to flatten it so it will fit into a stock shift ****?

That's what I'd probably do, but I'm always looking for an excuse to dig out the power tools.

If you f*** it up, you're no worse off than you are now (well, except that you'll be parked until a replacement arrives)...at least you'd get the pleasure of cutting Meg off at the knees.

I looked for a picture of Meg getting whacked for you and found one, but I couldn't just ignore the guy dressed as Meg because I love seeing people voluntarily demean themselves.

FRUNKenstein

PM sent.

Thanks to everyone for the ideas.

FRUNKenstein

Well, thanks to DFWCanuck, I got this in the mail Wednesday:

He had this as an extra in his garage and sent it to me for the cost of shipping. How cool is that?
So, this morning I did the swap from this:

to this:

And Meg Griffin is going back into the box where she belongs!


Thanks again to DFWCanuck - you da man!!!!

fbgh2o

that's just hideous!

Nice replacement...

DFWCanuck

Just happy I could help out a fellow Rennlister.

And as an added benefit my wife was just that much happier when she saw some pieces leave the garage!!

Thanks Jeff for the
I had just enough to cover a holiday Sam Adams

Happy and safe holidays

FRUNKenstein

Thanks again, Chris. And my wife is happy also that Meg has found a new home - she's being donated to Schnell for some 996 shifter research. And since we all know who voices Meg Griffin, maybe Schnell can bring out it's inner Mila:

5CHN3LL

Damn, Meg is more leggy in person than I remember from TV.

Package arrived in good shape, thanks.

golfmanlk

tell me that's a photoshopped pic please… no woman has ever looked better…. quite amazing!

TonyTwoBags

TonyTwoBags