B&M Ripper Sport Shifter question
 

I just purchased a sport shifter from another member, got it today and I have a question...

Does this shifter come with internal springs within the shifter base ?? The reason I ask is that the one I just got is VERY loose as in it has no springs int.

Is it supposed to be that way ?

any help would be appreciated.

I thought the same thing...... trust me, when you install it, it won't be loose.

So your B&M sport shifter was the same way ?

Yep - no springs inside the stock shifter or the B&M, once it's installed you will be glad that there aren't. If it's too stiff after the install do the anti-venom mod and it will be back to stock effort with the shortened B&M throw...

:eek: :eek: :eek: Aww hell...... if its going back to being way stiff on the shifts again, I may as well leave the C6-Z06 shifter in the car ! :(

The B&M is going to be shorter, stiffer and notchier than the C6 shifter. Realistically the C6 shifter is the same as the C5, but a tad bit shorter shaft and an offset handle - the actual gear throw distance is identical...

Do the B&M and then anti-venom and I think you will be plesantly suprised. If not it's easy to go back to stock...

You are SO CORRECT about the C5 and C6 shifters.... :iagree:

I think it would be fair to say I wasted my money on the C6 shifter. :(

what is an anti-venom mod?

couple of copper washers placed on the detent bolt on your tranny to soften the shifter throws. :thumbs:

Anti-Venom mod:

You need:
- 15/16" socket and wratchet with approx 4-6" extention
- 3/4" ID brass washer approx 1/16" thick (typically a drain plug washer)
- rat tail file

There is a neutral detent plug that adds additional force between shifts. It is a brass plug with a spring loaded ball bearing in the end of it that pushes on some part of the transmissoin, I don't exactly know what. I am sure in the stock form this added pressure is needed so you can feel the shift gates and neutral, but with a short-shifter it's too much. If you shim this plug it dramatically smoothens and decreases the effort needed to shift.

If you look high up on the passenger side of the transmission there is a brass plug with a slightly raised round center. Take this plug out and add the washer to it, you may need to bore the center with the rat tail file to make it fit over the bolt depending on the exact size you got. Clean the surface of the trans, bolt and washer and re-install the bolt with the washer. That is it! Now go test the feel of your shifter and bask in the glow of easy, quick and precise shifts.

I also suggest performing the shift box linkage adjustment while you are replacing the stock shifter, it will also help smooth shifts out.

Another thing that I did recently was add dynomat to the shifter, center console, and the rubber cover that goes over the top of the torque tube. This got rid of quite a few rattles, reduced a bit of the noise coming through the torque tube, and redced the heat being transferred up through the console.

awesome thanks guys! :thumbs:

Do you have pictures of the DYNOMAT? I was thinking of doing this but not sure how.

actually I just had the whole thing apart last night while installing my deck - but didn't take any pictures :(

next time I have it apart I can snap a few...

Hi J

How do you perform the shift box linkage adjustment? It would be a great help if you could explain.

Ty Jim:thumbs:

:cheers: first off I would like to thank tstar for the following write up and pics - that's who I pirated from:cheers:

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r.../Antivenom.jpg

Shifter adjustment

Once you remove the trim bezel and rubber isolation boot, you will see this.
Simply put the transmission in neutral with the Ebrake on, loosen the 3 Torx fasteners, 2 on the torque tube and one on the pinch bolt for the shifter rod.
Drop the pin into the slot and retorque the fasteners, all 3 to 30 N.M or 22 ft lbs. The 2 torque tube fasteners first, then the pinch bolt. Pull the pin back up, that’s it.

Use an allen wrench or drill bit if your pin is missing…

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...ustmentPin.jpg

This made a big improvement, but I occasionally would still get hung up getting into first. I took apart the console again and noticed that even with the alignment pin "in' and all 3 torx bolts loose the shifter "box" still had about 2 millimeters play forward and back. In other words you can tighten the shifter box after you push the shifter box to the front part of this play or to the back part of this play. I decided to try pushing the shifter box all the way forward, tighten everything and drive the car. This made my first gear selection problem COMPLETELY disappear BUT now second felt a bit "crunchy" going in and 3rd and 4th gear were not as easy as before. So I tried moving the shifter box to the back of the possible play and drive the car. My first gear problem came back worse than ever, but the rest of the gears were relatively smoother but not perfect.

I was back to square one... So I took a break, and when I came back i decided to totally remove the shifter box and analyze this problem. Once I removed the shifter I noticed that there is a half moon shaped cut out on the shift shaft that the 3rd torx bolt goes through. This cut out prevents the shift shaft from completely coming out of the clamp if the bolt got loose, and is obviously, exactly where the bolt is designed to go through the clamp.

What I did was I installed the shifter box back with only the 2 torx that hold it to the tunnel finger tight and left out the 3rd torx completely. I took a flash light and shined it down the hole.
where the bolt goes in the clamp. It turns out that the cut out on the shift shaft can be a millimeter forward of the clamp or a millimeter aft of the clamp and the bolt will still go into the clamp fine and you can tighten it in any of these positions. Thus the 2 millimeters of play.

I made an educated guess that the cut out on the shaft should be EXACTLY aligned with the hole in the clamp (not a bit forward or back even though the bolt will still fit)
so I aligned the cut out on the shaft so perfectly that when you shined a light down the hole the cut out on the shaft was not even noticeable. You could just see a perfectly round hole. I then tightened the 2 torx on the torque tube to spec and checked to see if anything moved. Nothing moved and the shaft cut out was still perfectly aligned with the hole in the clamp that holds the 3rd torx. I carefully placed the 3rd torx in the clamp and since the it was so well lined up it I could tighten it with my fingers (up to a point of course) then I carefully tightened it to spec (22 ft pounds) trying not to place any down pressure on the bolt, just rotational pressure enough to get to spec.

Buttoned it all back up and WOW. All gears went in perfectly. First smooth as silk, second smooth with no crunch, third and fourth with one finger, fifth and sixth smooth.

After this, I changed the transmission fluid to the Redline D4 ATF you guys recommend, and that made the shifting even smoother.

Thank you J !


Jim

Argh Matey!!!! Avast ye land lubbers! :rofl: Or something like that! Cripes I feel like having a rum and coke now! BTW jbauch357 we're even! You're last write-up I copied and stored in my PC for future use... Awesome write-up!

FYI...

My Ripper (older model) has two springs internally. One on each side, to fine tune my feel I cut 1 1/2 loops off of each spring as well as add two of the M20 copper washers to the detent plug. I can honestly say that I have never had a better and smoother setup! Other then an automatic that is...

If your stock allignement pin is missing use a 5/32" drill bit.

I used two of the 13/16th copper drain plug washers on mine, 13/16" (aka M20) copper washer (Advanced Auto - Motormite #65277). About 1/16th total thickness with both washers... No filling required.

Good posts evryone. I have done the shifter adjustment on my stock shifter -- which has the captive pin. Just to confirm -- the B&M shifters (both Ripper and Sport) do not have the captive pin -- but you can stil do the adjustment after installing B&M by using a 5/32" drill bit?

Thanks.

Correct! :thumbs: To be honest I had forgotten to write the bit size down and I went out yesterday and made sure of the size...

5/32" :yesnod:

Oh, and here's something I noticed last while driving around in the vette... (With the C6-Z06 shifter install) While the shifter is ion gear it will slide "side-to-side" as if it's in neutral. And it's been getting difficult to find first gear !!

I think I've gotten a defective C6-Z06 shifter.... any comments before I contact Gene Culley to see what they can do to replace it.