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B&M Hammer shifter.
Ever since I swapped in the 2004r, I've been wanting a better looking and functioning shifter as well as 4 forward positions. When I first installed the 2004r, I ground out the original shift gate so I could pull it down to 1st gear. The 75 and other mid year C3's with auto, don't have a pointer in the shift indicator like the 77 and later, I wanted that too. I also didn't want it to look too "aftermarket" or look like it didn't belong.
I looked at several different shifters and the Hammer shifter has the classic look I was going for without looking like an all out race car. I purchased one through Advance with a $50 off coupon code, got it for $155 with free shipping. That was the easy part.
The C3 shifter is extremely compact and there's very little room under the shift plate and while the Hammer shifter isn't huge, it's considerably bigger than stock. I cut the floor shifter hole larger and held the new shifter in place, low enough in the front to clear the heater controls and still not hit the trans. It also had to be high enough and far enough forward int he rear to not hit the front U-joint. The other thing it had to clear was the hole in the shift plate. I trimmed the shifter mechanism of unneeded brackets and metal that wasn't absolutely necessary for operation and found it would all fit with nearly 1/4 inch to spare, tons of room! I put some sharpie marks on the floor and shifter for orientation then built a floor plate and a box under it to house the shifter. I ground out the shift plate and discovered that a leather shift boot from a 4 speed car would fit perfectly. The next issue was the indicator, the shifter came with one attached to it;s plastic console cover. I removed it and adapted it to the underside of my shift plate, it's got a red led on a slide with a small cable that hooks up to the shifter. I glued the indicator lens over the stock lens, To make the indicator slide clear I had to do away with the ash tray lid since it wouldn't be able to open with the indicator under it. The shifter came with a neutral safety switch as well as reverse light switch so the wiring mods were minimal.
This shifter has a lock out lever to lift as you pull it out of park and to reverse neutral and drive, then if you want, it will ratchet one gear at a time down to 1st, then one forward push gets it to 2nd, let off and hit it again and goes to 3rd then again to 4th. If I hit it again it will go to neutral, but not reverse, have to lift the lock-out lever to get reverse or park. I took it for a drive today and I am very happy with the operation and looks of it. for anyone thinking of doing this, think again, it was a lot of work!
Thanks guys, now I've got all summer to think about the next mod. Or maybe sooner, the 2004r I'm building to replace this one should give some hi rpm firm shift points and a little tire screeching.
Hammer time
