It's done! Actually it was done last night, but I still needed to add a light in it, which I just finished.I t works very nice, here's what I did:
- pull seats out, pull carpet back, cut a small 3"x2" hole in the sheetmetal above the very end of the tailshaft housing of the tranny (that's as far as the shifter will fit withough ginding against the driveshaft);
- strip the shifter from all it's cable-related hardware (no cable used in the linkage)
- drill four 1/4" holes in the shifter's base and the sheetmetal of the driveshaft tunnel, bolt shifter down to floor of car, cut a hole in carpet, pull carpet back where it belongs, vacuum interiors nicely, put seats back in;
- drain and open tranny, pull stock gear selection lever from inside an replace it with the T-bird one (mounted upside down though);
- fab a hard linkage rod (some welding and bending needed), hook up linkage to tranny and shifter, adjust length accordingly;
- cut wheel off T-bird main detent sping and add it under Townie main detent spring so they act like one with double the stiffness, close pan, will back with the old ATF (no need for new);
- pull ashtray with radio tracker out, pull light out, cut wires off, pull greenish cap off, cut half the black dome under it off, put cap back on, fab a metal bracket, mount light to bracket and bracket in shifter, splice wires under carpet, done!
Love the way shifter feels, and the double detent spring hels a lot for precise shifting - basically once over the ridge of a detent the tranny finds its next gear on its own and kinda pulls the shifter into it. Light in shifter is adequate in amount, however pointer is hard to see as it's clear and not red - will be take care of not too far in the future. Other than that it's all good to use.
- pull seats out, pull carpet back, cut a small 3"x2" hole in the sheetmetal above the very end of the tailshaft housing of the tranny (that's as far as the shifter will fit withough ginding against the driveshaft);
- strip the shifter from all it's cable-related hardware (no cable used in the linkage)
- drill four 1/4" holes in the shifter's base and the sheetmetal of the driveshaft tunnel, bolt shifter down to floor of car, cut a hole in carpet, pull carpet back where it belongs, vacuum interiors nicely, put seats back in;
- drain and open tranny, pull stock gear selection lever from inside an replace it with the T-bird one (mounted upside down though);
- fab a hard linkage rod (some welding and bending needed), hook up linkage to tranny and shifter, adjust length accordingly;
- cut wheel off T-bird main detent sping and add it under Townie main detent spring so they act like one with double the stiffness, close pan, will back with the old ATF (no need for new);
- pull ashtray with radio tracker out, pull light out, cut wires off, pull greenish cap off, cut half the black dome under it off, put cap back on, fab a metal bracket, mount light to bracket and bracket in shifter, splice wires under carpet, done!
Love the way shifter feels, and the double detent spring hels a lot for precise shifting - basically once over the ridge of a detent the tranny finds its next gear on its own and kinda pulls the shifter into it. Light in shifter is adequate in amount, however pointer is hard to see as it's clear and not red - will be take care of not too far in the future. Other than that it's all good to use.
Comment