How to Rebuild the Manual Shifter Assembly

[kev]

This is to redo an older thread pertaining to the manual shifter rebuild that was lost in the data server crash .   I’m also adding some new information on a shifter I just rebuilt in the last week.    The photos depicted in this thread were from a few different rebuilds over the past few years, so there may be some oddities between them.  I tried to use the best photos that I had to depict the process, even if they were not from the same project.  

The purpose of this thread is to show how to rebuild the manual shifter assembly for our cars (all model years are applicable).   I’ll show how to disassemble the stock shift lever assembly (without cutting the shifter itself!) and I’ll show two methods of rebuild:

1.       Rebuilding using an aftermarket short shifter kit

2.       Rebuilding to stock configuration

 

Disassembly:

The starting point is with the shifter assembly unbolted from the transmission and off of the vehicle.

If you flip over the shift lever, you will see an internal snap ring on the underside.   Remove it with internal snap ring pliers

 

Now carefully pull the shift lever off of the shifter assembly.  You may need to rock it back and forth a bit.  It doesn’t come off very easy due to the rubber insert inside (shown later).  Take your time so that you do as little damage to the rubber insert as possible

 

 

The lever will be removed and this is what you will see

 

The aftermarket kits tell you to cut the shift lever to disassemble.  Even if using an aftermarket short shifter kit, I still don’t like to sacrifice OEM parts.  You just never know if and when you will want to go back to the stock configuration.   So, let’s remove it the proper way!

If you look closely at the sleeve under the rubber insert, you will see a crimp on both sides.

 

You want to grind over these crimps, being careful not to grind into the shifter.  The example shown here looks like it went too far but it didn’t.  It just broke the surface, for the notches in the shifter lever are pretty deep.

 

From here, you can pull the sleeve off (via a vise) and remove the washer, rubber grommet, thicker washer, internal snap ring, and finally the large rubber boot.   Note, for the rebuild here, my sleeve broke it half on removal.   I’ve since gotten better at pulling these off in one piece but this was the best photo I had of the parts displayed out on removal.   Take your time removing the sleeve, the more you get it off in one piece, the easier it will be to reassemble if you are rebuilding to stock form. 

 

Might as well remove the rectangular steel plate on the bottom now.   Three bolts/nuts

 

 

Next is the smaller boot.  There is a wire wrapped around the base and twisted.  Simply untwist and remove

 

 

Next, pull the C clip (or some call it an E clip) off of the shifter. Then you can remove the large thin washer, spring, and cup

 

 

Also, the triangular plate on the bottom is two pieces.  The upper piece has the lip for the inner grease boot.  Pull this off of the fulcrum support plate.   There is a gasket between the two.   I didn’t show this in any of my photos.   Removing it will give you more access to the dowel pin.

This part is the most difficult; removing the dowel pin.   Nothing too much to describe, you need to hammer it or press it out.   It is a press fit, so it doesn’t come out the easiest.   The difficult part is constraining the shifter for pin removal.  That fulcrum support plate is always in the way.   In my case, my fulcrum was completely disintegrated and gone, which gives you some more freedom.   A disintegrated fulcrum is very common and the main reason for performing the rebuild in the first place. 

I have gotten better at this on each rebuild but I never took the time to make up good brace to punch out the pin.  I just fight with the right positioning and make it work.   

 

With that pin out, the fulcrum support plate can be removed and you are now fully disassembled.   From here, clean all of your parts up really good.  

I thought I did a good job laying all of the parts out in this photo but it is missing one item…can you spot what it is?    (I left it laying on my other bench when I snapped this picture)

 

[kev]

Assembly Method 1: Using an aftermarket short shifter kit:

If you have an aftermarket short shifter kit, I’ll post some photos of the assembly.  These are fairly abridged because it is pretty simple.   I have a few better photos in Assembly Method 2, which is the same process but with the original shifter rather than the aftermarket shifter rod.

First step is to take the aftermarket shifter rod, slide on the fulcrum support plate, fulcrum, and new dowel pin.   All parts here are new with exception to the fulcrum support plate, making this pretty easy.  Drive or press in your dowel pin until it is about even on both sides (look at the photos in Assembly Method 2 for an example on how I have been pressing these in with my vise). 

Once the dowel is in and centered, lube it up really good.  Wiggle the fulcrum support plate around too good a good grease layer around the fulcrum.   I lubricate it after dowel insertion.  It’s just easier to drive or press in the dowel when you don’t have slippery grease all over the place. 

 

 

Wipe the grease off of the bottom of the fulcrum support plate and place on the first gasket

 

 

Mount the original rectangular plate to the underside of the fulcrum support plate.  Under that, install the aftermarket shifter riser plate gasket and plate.   On the top side, place another triangular gasket over the fulcrum support plate and set the inner boot restraint plate on top.  Bolt together with the provided fasteners.  The washers and nuts go on the TOP side as shown in the photo.

 

Next, slide on the cup, spring, and large thin washer.  Secure with the C clip.  Grease it all up well. 

 

Slide on the inner boot and restrain it with the wire.   For this example, I used new lockwire but you can re-use the original wire. 

 

That’s pretty much all there is to it.  You can slide the larger boot over the lever on installation.   I forgot to show the shifter ball bushing, but it just pops on there.   Put a little grease on it as well prior to installation.

 

 

[kev]

Assembly Method 2: Reassembling the shifter to stock configuration

This method is to simply restore the shifter to the OEM configuration.   I recently did one of these for one of my cars that is pretty much stock.   I actually have a short shifter kit but wanted to retain the stock look and feel on this particular car.   I stole the fulcrum and shifter ball bushing from that kit but these are still both available.  I noticed many of them currently on ebay, as I write this thread.

Fulcrum: MD701605

Shifter ball bushing: MD701577

You will also need the two triangular gaskets for under and over the triangular fulcrum support plate.  Plus the shifter mounting gasket to the transmission.   These are still available in the Felpro transmission gasket set (TS 80310-1), or make them from scratch with gasket material, or simply use gasket maker RTV.  It’s just for keeping in that thick viscosity tranny fluid that is splashed around.  

Start with the same process as Assembly Method 1 but with the OEM shifter, OEM dowel pin, and new fulcrum.    Take a good look at your dowel pin.  The end that you hammered on to drive it out will most likely be a bit mushroomed.   Keep that end up (you can see it slightly in this photo).   I should note that when I disassembled this particular shifter, I hammered the pin hard to get the dowel to ‘break free’ and move.  Then I flipped it over and drove it out with the punch on the opposite end.  I didn’t want to drive the end that I mushroomed from hammering through the shifter.   Again, take your time and try to minimize damage to any the parts.   If you do have to damage something, make it a part that is more easily replaceable…for instance the dowel pin vs the actual shifter rod.  The dowel pin is pretty easily sourced, if needed.  

 

Here is how I installed the pin on my most recent rebuild.  It worked pretty swiftly using an old piece of scrap metal shaped like a ‘U’ and my vise. 

It supported better in this position to get it started, but the fulcrum support plate is in the way to push it home.  I pressed it as far as I could and then flipped the shifter over for the remaining.  It worked really well.  Much easier than hammering. 

 

 

 

 

Lube it up good and wiggle around the fulcrum support plate to get the grease fully around the fulcrum

 

 

I reassembled in a slightly different order on this one…It doesn’t matter.   

Install the cup, spring, large thin washer, and secure with the C clip

 

 

 

Now,  sandwich the fulcrum mounting plate between the inner boot restraint plate and rectangular shifting plate with gaskets in between (or RTV).  Bolt with the original bolts.  MAKE SURE THE BOLT HEADS ARE ON THE BOTTOM, as shown in the photo.   The nuts/washers need to be on the top.

Grease it up good as well.

 

Slide on the inner boot and restrain with the original or new wire.  

 

 

Slide on the large boot

 

Lay the shift lever internal snap ring on the boot as shown

 

Slide on the THICK washer first

 

Rubber grommet

 

Thin washer

 

Now we are up to replacing that sleeve that we ground on disassembly.  In this particular case, my sleeve was in pretty good condition.   I decided to simply weld it (trying to focus the weld on the sleeve and not the shaft to be able to permit easier removal if needed some day).   But there are many ways to skin a cat here.   You could rotate the sleeve and try to re-crimp using a hammer and chisel, replace with a new steel sleeve, or replace with an aluminum sleeve that is easy to crimp.   That part is up to you.   I have a welder handy, making this a no-brainer to me.  Plus it is easy to weld up even a heavily damaged sleeve (such as the one that I showed back in the disassembly steps).

Cleaning the sleeve up with a wire brush on my bench grinder, positioning it and welding. 

 

 

 

After cooling, slide on the rubber insert (I did put a little grease around the weld to keep it from rusting, not shown)

 

Slide on the shift lever and push it down past the thick washer.  This isn’t the easiest thing to do, I braced it in the vise to be able to push it down far enough.   The rubber insert wants to push back.  This is one of those times where you wish you had three hands in order to hold it down properly and be able to install the snap ring with the internal snap ring pliers.

 

 

Last but not least, put a little bit of grease on the ball and pop on the bushing

 

 

Don’t forget your gasket when you reinstall back on the transmission. 

 

[kev]

I'll add that if you are using an aftermarket short shifter:   Note the last photo on the rebuilt stock shifter.  There are two dowel pins in the plate to index the shifter to the transmission.  The aluminum plate of the aftermarket short shifter has thru holes to accept the dowels on the factory metal plate.   BUT what it doesn't have are the dowels to index the aluminum plate to the transmission.    So, it is relying on the bolts to maintain position.  Bolt holes typically have up to a 1/16" of slop diametrically.   This is too much IMHO.  What I did on my build was add two roll pins to the transmission flange when mated to the aluminum plate (I believe they are M6 diameter).    This provides the needed indexing but it makes removing the shifter a bit harder because the roll pins are pressing into the dowel holes of both the transmission and  the aluminum short shifter block.   Obviously you could use dowel pins but if the forward one were to work its way out of the hole, it would fall down into the transmission.   I didn't want to take that risk.   

It doesn't look like I captured any photos of those roll pins and that car has been functional for years now but if I ever pull that shifter, I'll add a few photos to this thread.   

Just food for thought....

 

[kev]

Posting this here for now to gain any feedback/comments or suggestions/alternate approaches.   It will most likely be moved to the FAQ section soon. 

 

 

Oh, I totally forgot to snap a photo but has anyone ever noticed that the factory shifter is offset about 5 degrees to the right side of the car?   Meaning that the shifter bend angle isn't straight front to back.  The angular rotation between the shifter handle and the dowel pin holes is about 85 degrees vs a true 90.   So it biases the passenger seat.   Makes sense for RHD Japanese and European spec cars but never noticed  it until this past week having it all torn down and reassembling.