I just installed the TPS 427 shifter and it has a lot of play when in gear. Is this normal for a factory shifter? Shifter bolts are torqued to spec. I’m coming from an MGW which did not have this much play.

https://youtube.com/shorts/K1Zm_EyeKFo?feature=shared

 

Well I had an MGW and it had play.

I learned about TMOD Customs' shifter linkage upgrade, did that and it tightened it up.

I am not happy with the MGW for road racing/heel and toe manouvers (2 and 4 hard to get into it, reverse hard to get into -- i was told for sideways to do the venom mod but didn't). I am going to also switch to TMOD Customs' ISO 20% short shifter. Apparently the MGW is too short at 40% short throw... and, well it's too hard for quick road racing changes. Stock was so easy to heel and toe with but imprecise. The MGW feels like a bazooka for drag racing, not for constant ups and downs...

 

Thanks for the reply. I agree, the MGW wasn’t a good fit me either. It came on my car when I bought it and just didn’t feel right to me. Not knocking it, as I’m aware it’s very popular and many are very happy with it - just wasn’t for me.

TPS 427 feels pretty good. Don’t love the slop that I didn’t observe as much with the MGW, but it’s tolerable. Think I’ll give the anti-venom a try too to further reduce the notchiness.

 

I would suggest pulling your radio bezel back off and check to see if shift shaft coming out of the lower box is slipping in the pinch block when you move the shifter laterally like in your video. I found that I couldn't crank the stock pinch bolt down tight enough to completely eliminate all slippage in the lateral (neutral) gate. At least not before wiping the threads out of the pinch block. I ended up drilling through it and used a 5/16 grade 8 bolt with a self-locking nut and hardened washers on both sides to eliminate 90% of that slop. What was left was play in the upper shifter box and possibly in the rear half of the shift shaft - the one TMOD welds a new u-joint into.

This was with the B&M ripper that came with the car. I just put a stock C6 upper in last week, and it seems to be completely perfect for my needs.

You will also want to pay attention to whether there is any slop in the shift shaft coming out of the lower box - can you move it up and down or side-to-side? If so get a TMOD bushing replacement. That's what I'm getting ready to do now as I just tore mine down to do a clutch / TT / t-56 rebuild.

Edit: Lastly, pay attention to the bushings between the lower and the torque tube. If they haven't been replaced with solid steel washers or the z-06 aluminum bushings, you'll want to get rid of that junk rubber crap. I'd rather feel a little more engine vibration in the shifter than have the added slop the rubber bushings allow.

 

Same here, and believe it or not, the factory shop manual calls for that bolt to be tightened to some silly torque like 13-14 ft/lbs of torque. I was hard on it with a 3/8" drive "breaker bar", and still have some play in mine.........

 

Will definitely check it as I need to get back in there to replace the lower boot anyway with one that hasn’t been modified for an MGW. I torqued to 30 ft-lbs, but could try tightening it more if I see some play.

 

Good luck, trying to find a new, or even used, lower boot!! GM discontinued them, several years ago, and I "modified" mine to accommodate the larger dimensions of my Hurst shifter. I recently decided to buy another one, and leave it alone, just in case I wanted to reinstall the OE shifter. I searched online, for HOURS, and came up empty.......one vendor stated that they were going to reproduce them, but weren't sure when.

 

I was able to wipe the threads out of the pinch block with a short 3/8" drive ratchet. This is what I did.

full res here

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use an old header bolt on the shift linkage, I had an issue with the factory bolt loosening up over time and making the shifter very sloppy and switching the bolt out took care of it... you can also use a dab of blue loctite for extra insurance

 

This isn't a case of the bolt loosening over time. The first words of his post were "I just installed".

 

If you mean, when you say "wipe the threads out", you mean that you stripped them, a new clamp can still be purchased. It's part number 19206520.


UPDATE... I previously mentioned that I thought that the torque spec for the clamp was something like 13-14 ft/lbs. I was mistaken, as I just checked my FSM, and the spec is 22 ft/lbs. for both the shift box retaining bolts, as well as the clamp retaining bolt. I know that when I last worked on mine, I indeed torqued the box retaining bolts to "spec", but I really "reefed" on the clamp bolt, since the shaft still "rocked" a little in the clamp, at 22 Ft/lbs. of torque.

 

That's exactly what I meant.

If I was worried about originality I might have looked into that. But I like my go-fast toys to be serviceable by anyone with good old fashioned common sense, especially me. A 5/16" x 2" bolt, two washers and self locking nut cost me a little over $2 at the local farm supply store, and they were already in my bolt drawer so I didn't even have to drive there to get them.

Also, having removed numerous bellhousing adapters from 4L60E transmissions which use a bastardized version of the T55, I am a firm believer that the Torx fastener drive is universally evil and should be avoided at all costs.

 

Amen, F those bolts. Recipe for breaking torx bit sockets.