Let's back up and try to straighten this out a little bit. I designed my own C4 shifter, eventually gave it to Hurst, and they changed it cosmetically and went to production with it. The C5 shifter (#391-5085) is entirely different from the C4, and I had no initial involvement with it. Much of its mechanism is simply from the LT1 Camaro, but the stick and base are different, and I did help with the "optimization" of the stick design. The adjustable spring mechanism is specific to the C5 model, and was implemented in the early part of the design, with which I had no involvement, though I am glad it is there.

I helped write most of the Hurst C5 installation instructions, and will see what we can do to make it a little clearer, but there's only so much we can say. We already indicate that the shifter comes with the softer inner and stiffer outer springs. Each person's sense of effort varies, and so the only way to properly configure the tension is to install it with the factory setting, and decide how much different it needs to be. A spring change should be made if much more or less tension is desired. If just a slight alteration is necessary, changing preload height may do the trick. Beyond this I don't know what more we could say, but if anyone has suggestions please let me know and I'll be glad to suggest it during the next edit session.

As far as vibration, any solid lever shifter, as the aftermarket shifters are, will always have the potential to carry vibration, especially with the shift linkage design of the C5. The Hurst design is the only to use a large energy absorbing polymer socket, and as a whole typically attenuates more noise than the others, but the stock ****'s retention design especially has potential to make noise even with this. And so perfection with any aftermarket shifter should not be expected, but most often with the proper **** it can be quite tolerable. I would like to see a reduced throw shifter with a two-piece rubber-coupled design like factory, but at this time I guess the market isn't strong enough for it, the short throw guys want precision and sometimes noise is the price of that.

 

Chris,

Excellent post. Thank you for taking the time to give us some background on this shifter. Your response needs to be *captured* for future reference.

Suggestion One--develop a way to identify the spring in accordance with their relative tension. Holley did this with their vacuum secondary carb springs by color coding (there were about a dozen), but some written description of the springs may suffice.

Suggestion Two--provide the factory preload height. I measured mine to be 7/32 inch on both allen plugs before I messed with it. Perhaps something like "two full turns in" or "five pennies (dimes?) high" would be appropriate and accurate enough. I measured 7/32 with a depth gage....not a common tool in most garages.

Suggestion Three--provide some indication of what can be expected by changing the preload height, and how more or less on one side or the other will change shift action. For instance, does adding one turn of preload on the righthand screw improve the 2-3 shift but hurt the 4-5 shift? This would be the type of "general" info that would help an owner figure out which way to go with an adjustment to compensate for all the many variables, such as a person's strength, height (leverage), type of racing (drag is so different than autocross). In other words, give us a clue as to what a basic "type" change will do for a basic "problem" to correct.

Suggestion Four--Explain further the use of Loctite. Must it be ADDED to the adjusting plugs even in no changes are made to the settings, because mine turned with just finger pressure.....I have to assume they'll turn due to vibration. So........does that mean EVERY owner should pull the plugs, add Loctite and reinstall to whatever height they think it might have been? (How would they know, since you don't provide the factory height)

Generally, these four suggestions reflect the lack of info provided in the insturctions. Please note that I am not a novice....I had my first Hurst Super/Shifter with Reverse Loc-out in 1971.....then I had a Lenco:yesnod: .....yet I still have these questions about the adjustability features on this otherwise simple device.

Again, many thanks for your input and info on this topic. I think this forum strongly supports this fine, new Hurst product. (but Kirban and Ripper are good, too!!!)



[Modified by tracy, 3:53 PM 7/17/2002]

 

Why the stops?
I have heard some have pulled them out completely.
The Ripper does not have any stops.
Any thoughts?

Tracy, I second your suggestions! excellent, maybe someone will take that on as a project and report back

:cheers:

 

As discussed before, the stops are there for "abusive" drivers, to remove excessive loading from the linkage. Hurst felt it important to offer them to those who need them. B&M had them, but because of the problems created by those who didn't know what to do with them, they felt it better to just forget it. Basically, if you don't shift very hard, you don't need the stops and it's best to remove them. If you do feel they are of use, simply follow the instructions to properly set them, and use lots of loctite on the threads and nuts.

 

I just installed mine yesterday and also experienced the rattling with the stock ****. I was able to eliminate about 85% of the rattling by wrapping the shift lever threads with two layers of teflon tape.

The rest of the rattling only seems to happen in certain gears at 1/2 throttle or more. I'm thinking this may be related to the stops, so i'm going to back them out another 1/4 turn tomorrow.

tim

 

If anyone needs detailed instructions with photos, you can download them here http://www.thx2.net/downloads.htm

 

as if the Hurst isnt the greatest, just wait until you shed the stock **** and put on something taller-I used an MGW gripper and all my worries about stiff springs -problems going into 6th etc were solved. :D

 

Problem number two - Karen drove mine, and now wants one for her Z06. Can't stop that gal....

[Sigh][/Sigh]

:seeya

 

I love the Hurst but the rattling and buzzing are getting on my nerves. I tried the $80 momo F16 and all it did was change the tone of the noise. I'm trying Teflon Tape with the OEM **** w/o success. I'm now thinking of getting the MGW but wonder how much I'll like the shorter ****. This is a response I got from MGW on their ****'s - " both our gripper and pistol grip will lower the height over stock by about 3/4 of an inch. the reason is we do not use that goofy t-nut and we thread our ***** all the way to the top of the ****. our **** will sit about .200 of an inch over the top of your actual shaft so to get any lower you would need to lower the shifter :>)

the grippers will be ready by end of next week.

regards
george"

So with the MGW sitting about 3/4 of an inch lower then the OEM **** I'm now using I wonder how that will affect effort, feel and noise?

Those using this **** any feedback you can share?

Tom
USAF Retired