Schaggy

So I'm doing the rear main seal/clutch/trans rebuild thing and I thought I'd go through my shifter and linkage along the way. Things were going great as I took the shifter apart it initially looked like nothing needed to be replaced... very little wear on much of anything.

Then I get my Eckler's catalog and what's on the back cover? a shifter rebuild kit. The strange thing is that the rebuild kit appears to have two of the spring-gates (not sure that's the right term for the springy crescent pieces that go between the bigger crescent pieces that pivot on the big shaft in the shifter) where my shifter only has one.

This isn't my shifter, but it looks exactly the same:



This is the rebuild kit:



Should my shifter have two of these springs?

Thanks guys!

kjbuster1

My 1972 BB with an M20 and, I believe, the original shifter has only one gate.

Hammerhead Fred

There are two reverse lock out gates, one is thicker than the other.
As your shifter ages with use the lever cage gets stretched out of square which gives the "slop" everyone complains about with our stock shifters. Truth is the original shifter is a nice unit when new. The thicker reverse lock out gate shim takes up that slop and is supposed to yield a tight shifter again. Last time I rebuilt one the slop was so bad that the thicker gate didn't do me much good so I chucked the gate cage in a vice and "resquared" it. Put the original thickness gate back in and ended up with a very nice & tight shifter. Choose your poison.

Schaggy

Wow! That was fast!

Mine doesn't even need the vice. Now it's time to break out the white lithium grease.

Thanks guys!