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Drove the car to Lake Powell last weekend and a weird thing happened on the way down, that's still happening. Drive on the highway for a couple hours, then got off and right away noticed that the shifter felt "weird". Kind of springy? Kind of "detached"? It shifts the trans reliably, but just doesn't feel connected or hooked up. At the same time, I noticed that it'll cruise right on into the Reverse gate w/o lifting the reverse block out ring.
I can get it up in the air, drop the exhaust and see what's up this weekend, but wondered if anyone had seen this before?
On the up side, on the way back, I topped off in Bullfrog, drove about 80 (averaged 73 mph) back to Park City w/the AC on and saw 28.3 mpg. Fantastic.
Check to make sure that the bolt holding the bracket that secures the rear position of the shifter assembly hasn't fallen out, or the rubber bushing hasn't perished.
Yeah....I"ll get to it, "this weekend". A year later, I've found A loose bolt. I can't get the threads to "take". I think I'll have to lower the trans to see what's up.
Yeah....I"ll get to it, "this weekend". A year later, I've found A loose bolt. I can't get the threads to "take". I think I'll have to lower the trans to see what's up.
Incredible. Murphy's law. Sooo close. You can touch that Allen bolt.
If only. threaded 1/2" more.
you could sneak in a 1/4 bit. i believe that is a 6mm hex. spin the bit with a gear wrench.
I wasn't sure what I was "aiming for", so I wasn't hitting the hole. Dropped the C-beam....excuse me, the "Driveline Support beam", and lowered teh trans, then realized that I had to manipulate the shifter housing/assy to get the bolt to line up w/the threaded hole. Then, w/the trans down, easy in!
Driveline support beam back in place, go eat lunch then throw the exhaust back in.
SO much better! Why I put up with a wooden stick in can of molasses and rocks is beyond me.
Man that seems like a lot of work for one little bolt. After having it all apart do you think it would be possible to do it in car by manipulating the shifter housing until the threads lined up or what you did would be the only way? Just wondering in case it happens to mine.
That's a great question. I don't think it would be worth trying to do without dropping the trans for a couple reasons.
first, while I think it might be possible to manipulate the shifter box until you hit the hole for the bolt, it would be really hard. Maybe possible? But super hard and frustrating doing it blind with no room.
second, I'm not even sure if you could get an allen wrench on to that Allen screw, as close as it is to the transmission tunnel when it's all the way up in there. Even if you could fit it into the screw, you'd probably just be turning it one flat at a time at best.
In the end, I think you'd spend just as much time fighting it with it all the way up in there. And there's no way in hell you could do it with the exhaust still in place. That has to come out for sure. Once that's out it's not much extra work to take the c-beam out. Excuse me, the Driveline support beam.
Got ya! Here's hoping I don't have to go down that road. So do you believe this is the 1st time that the tranny has been out? I'm just wondering if someone was in there sometime before you took possession and neglected to tighten it up during reassembly?
The clutch was done by a dealer at 130,000 miles (77k miles ago). I think that's the only time the transmission has ever been out of that car. I have all this receipts from the previous owner and that's the only event I can see where that happened.
Note that I didn't pull the whole trans out, I just remove the c-beam and dropped the tranny down as far as I dared, then did what I needed to do... then lifted it back up, put the c-beam back on and put the exhaust back in.
FWIW, there is no reason whatsoever to remove that bolt during a clutch job. The only reason to remove that bolt is to remove the entire shifter assembly. It goes through a pivot and can bind during removal or install if you don’t get the shifter manipulated properly. Even a short shift install (can be done in car) does not need that removed.
Based on my dealing with that same bolt I find it very strange it was loose or came loose…. Perhaps the shifter mechanism was removed for some other reason in the past? Is the shifter shortened?
For example on mine, I pulled the entire shifter mechanism and sent it to Zfdoc to be shortened and freshened up. That required that bolt to be removed. Of course this was done with the transmission removed. Again I find that to be very strange!
I agree with everything just said. That bolt shouldn't come out with a tranny removal and it's weird that it came out. The shifter is stock. The only thing I can throw out there is, 207,000mi. (?)
IDK.
When you eventually pull the trans (someday ), check the rubber bushing that secures the rear of the shifter mechanism (there is an arm that wraps around the back of the shifter and is bolted to the trans). I am *guessing* there might be some slop there that is allowing the shifter to move up and down enough to work the bolt out? That is one of the pieces that was replaced by Bill at zfdoc.
Also double check that arm with the bushing is not loose (should be able to grab it and try to wiggle it to check). There are two bolts that secure it.
Yeah I checked the bolts that hold the bracket that holds the back end of the shift box. They were tight. That bushing in the top of that looked okay too.
But I'm with you, if I ever take the transmission out, I will scrutinize all that stuff
When I pulled my transmission out the first time for a clutch replacement I removed the shifter and sent it to Bill B
to have it shortened.
My bolt had Loctite on it and was pretty darn tight.
But I found my rubber bushing where that bolt goes through in the shifter housing was cracked pretty badly.
The rear bushing was perfect.
I tried to press that bushing out of the aluminum housing and even though I used a smaller diameter socket on the bushing with my press
I still ended up breaking the aluminum housing where the bushing was inserted. I probably should have heated it up first and then pressed it out.
But the damage was done so I welded up the broken aluminum housing, added more material so that section would be beefier. Then I used my mini mill to bore a hole in the repaired aluminum housing to ready it for a new Delrin bushing that I cut and installed the center metal sleeve to fit.
I used some window sealant (the same stuff that I used on the C beam that Bill B recommended) on the Delrin outer bushing and pressed it into the aluminum shifter housing.
It has held up quite well and I never have to worry about it cracking again.
The rubber bushing is not available by itself. Bill B can sell you a used shifter housing though.
That was my fun story.
Sounds a bit stressful, at moments, but you did a good repair!
Thanks Tom at that moment it was pretty stressful. When I saw the aluminum break off with the bushing I was like WTF now what do I do?
But it all worked out. And lucky me I got to check my work all over again when I had to change the clutch yet again to the RAM conversion.
It was a whole lot of fun
6 speed shifter weirdness.
), check the rubber bushing that secures the rear of the shifter mechanism (there is an arm that wraps around the back of the shifter and is bolted to the trans). I am *guessing* there might be some slop there that is allowing the shifter to move up and down enough to work the bolt out? That is one of the pieces that was replaced by Bill at zfdoc.
