Since the snow is piling up outside, I got to thinking about a "Spring-time" job and I thought I'd ask the experts, I bought a custom 4L-60 automatic shift boot from Redlinegoods.com, and it seems like the new leather is somewhat thicker than the 2003 OEM shift boot material and I was wondering if this is going to pose a problem come install time ? I also haven't been able to find the plastic retainer that holds the new shift boot to the gear selector fixture. Any advice is greatly apricated !

 

You need to overlap the edges of the slit in the boot over the long oval retainer. Look at the old one to see what I am talking about. The slit in the boot I got had to be enlarged quite a bit. I glued the leather to the retainer with E6000 cement. It was nearly impossible to hold in place until I remembered that I had a lot of small hemostats that I could clamp it with. It is especially difficult (and critical) to get it properly glued at each end. In case you don't already know; there is a staple in the front of the shift **** that you need to pry out so you can remove the ****, then, turn the old boot completely wrong side out to reveal the zip tie at the top that keeps the boot fastened to the shift lever.

 

The plastic retainer you need will be from the OEM boot.
And if you don't have surgical instruments just hanging around your house, maybe document clamps will do.

 

Many examples on YT that show you everything you need-

 

Great, I have a few of the plastic hemostats from my time in NYC, I will try that, and is the small ziptie at the top I assume will need to be replaced, is that something easily obtainable ? I just don't want to get it half Off-On , and run into problems, and rich did you find the boot retainer very difficult to remove and re-use ?

 

It is just a plain old wire tie/zip tie like you use to loom up wires. WalMart/Dollar Tree/Dollar General/any automotive store will sell you 100 of them for less than $3.

 

I'm replacing my shift boot right now. The plastic retainer separated from the OEM boot easily enough. I'm gluing it into the new boot with E6000; working along the straight sides with document clips. I'll need something narrower to hold it in the corners, but it's going well. No worries.

 

Moved to C5 Tech for further discussion.

 

I just stumbled on another problem with this RedLineGoods shift boot, and that is at the top of the boot, there isn't any clear way to have a ZipTie to close the boot around the shifter itself, how are you doing that ? . . .

 

Killain

You have the OEM style shift ****. I've converted mine to a ball style. The adapter for the conversion fits over the shifter and it is a larger diameter. I tried using a ziptie to secure the boot, but then the folded over leather would not fit inside the OEM grommet. So I abandoned that and just shoved the leather up into and over the top of the grommet and locked it down with the shift ****. If it doesn't hold, I'll add some glue, but it seems pretty solid.

The opening at the top of the new boot was too small to fit over the adapter, so I cut off about 3/8". It worked as far as that goes, but I find I can no longer put the shifter in 1st. I don't go there anyway, but it's disappointing. If I had it to do over again, I'd just push it down hard over the adapter instead of cutting.
For you, I think this suggests putting the zip tie as close to the top of the boot as you can. Don't take my word; fit and try!

One thing you will encounter is that the bottom of the boot fits exceedingly tight around the base. I decided to cut off the little aligning tabs that go through holes in the OEM boot. That helped.


Boot inverted to install zip tie

Grommet will not fit over adapter and folded leather

Boot Installed