Shifter

Car came with a hole in the trans tunnel from a prior modification, patched with some screwed-in metal I removed in tear-down.  Here’s a dark photo illustrating the size of the wound:

It’s all been repaired since, had new equal-gauge metal welded in and smoothed when at the body shop:

But as I went to install the Hurst Competition Plus shifter on the freshly rebuilt trans, I realized there was no freakin’ way it was going to fit, without re-creating a monster hole.  After some investigation, turns out I had the wrong shifter – even though it worked fine with the trans, it was meant to fit in a Chevelle, which has a big hump on the driver side of the tunnel to accommodate that type of shifter.

So, a brand new Hurst Competition Plus shifter – this time for the Camaro, was purchased and installed-

 

No holes were cut in the installation, though it was a bit of a pain, you can barely get it in there. 

As you can somewhat see in the picture above and this one below:

The shifter works on the transmission through a collection of rods – one for 1-2, one for 3-4, and another for reverse.  The instructions say the rods may need some bending to “fit your application”.  Turns out they’re right about that – they all need bending.  Got the 3-4 rod bent now so it’s not hitting the trans tunnel, but the reverse rod hits the 1-2 rod when you use it, causing the transmission to select second gear and reverse simultaneously!  (Not so good when adjusting your position on the line at a Pro Solo with mere seconds left, and the trans gets stuck like that!)

So, still some more bending to do – looks like there’s plenty of room to get everything to work with no interference, just needs a bit more time and persuasion.  It’s funny to me, how a shifter design that literally must be 50 years old – one that probably still sells well today – still just plain doesn’t work right out of the box without some tweaking.

Would like to take the rods apart again anyway – noticed the Chevelle-style shifter had steel bushings in the ends of the rods, whereas the new ones are nylon, which might dampen a little vibration, but also might break.

Shifter is a medium height, a decent starting point.  Hurst makes a bunch of different shifter sticks, if I’d like it up higher (closer to the steering wheel) they make longer ones, and if I’d like a shorter throw, they make shorter ones.