Vet65te

My 66 Coupe is a smallblock, 4 speed car and when we bought it in '89 it had a Hurst Shifter. A Muncie shifter came with the car so when we did a complete mechanical workover in '94, we reinstalled that shifter. There's about 3500 miles on everything at this point. Shifts well, no real problems but one thing I've noticed is that the shifter shaft is starting to fell sloppy. Went underneath hoping to find something had backed off. Not the case. All the attachment bolts, shifter rods, clevices and clips are all in place. This 'looseness' is found whether it's in gear or in neutral. The actual shifter just rocks back and forth, actually it will 'move' in any direction. Now I do have a spare Muncie 4 speed shifter that I bought a few months ago from another Forum member and noticed that shifter has a retaining pin with a clip while the one in the car right now has a hex bolt and a nylock nut. Obviously not original but serves the same purpose. The Service Manuals don't show any detail on the actual shaft but they are a two piece affair, tubular upper section that you'd normally see up top through the shifter boot and the cast lower crescent shaped section that actually does the shift lever engagement.
I haven't taken the shifter out of the car yet but it appears that the looseness is effectively where the upper tube section is swaged or staked into the lower section. There are no obvious mechanical fasteners to tighten, just a smooth, polished 1/2-inch circle on the passenger side of the lower cast section. Maybe it was lead filled after joining the two parts. Any suggestions on how this looseness can be fixed? Also, who sells the small parts like the shifter shaft pin and the wavy washer that rests in a small depression in the face of the lower shaft section? Thanks.
Mike T.

Bluestripe67

I just went into my attic and look at my original '67 shifter, same as yours, and the two are joined by brazing the two sections together. After that the unit is held into the lower section by the pin and clip. Dennis

Vet65te

After searching the archives here and at the NCRS Tech Forums, I haven't run across anyone who has 'repaired' their original Muncie 4 speed shifter shafts. There are repro's available from various vendors like Volunteer Vette and Long Island. Has anyone bought these repro's and are they good quality? Are they 'solid' with no slop at all between the upper and lower sections?

66jack

All the corvette suppliers should have the wavy washer pin and clip..as a matter of fact i bought mine from corvette central...part #532018 is a Kit and includes other shifter parts as well.

What i did for the "rattle was have my shifter "welded and rechromed" in the area described by you where the round portion fits into the "cresent" shape..

hope this helps
jack

Ron Miller

It's been several years back, so I don't remember exactly, but I had mine MIG'd or TIG'd one or the other. Didn't have to rechrome it for some reason or the other, as I recall the shift boot covers that area.

JohnZ

The permanent cure is to weld the round shaft section to the square cast section. I wrote a photo-illustrated feature article on rebuilding the stock Muncie shifter in the January '08 issue of "Corvette Enthusiast" magazine (800-448-3611 for back issues).

Kurt G.

A quik hit with the welder will do the trick. I used John's article on rebuilding my shifter back in July.....TERRIFIC!! Just like new. Make sure to use the AIM manual instructions to PROPERLY adjust your linkage if needed.

McCAIN / PALIN 2008
:fla g:

Ron Miller

Yep, that's how I did mine, but it was more like back in '78 than '08. Been quite a while back, and still working fine!

Vet65te

It sounds like welding will do the trick. I won't be worrying about rechroming since the weld will be hidden by the boot. Thanks to all.