Almost finished rebuilding the shifter. "Almost" applies because I managed to store the pivot bolt and bridge plate in a place so secure and safe that I can't find them. For now, I have to set the shifter aside while waiting for another parts delivery from Brewster's Performance. I really hate when I lose stuff, especially when I know I will find it later but only after the new parts are installed. Then again, if this is the worst thing that happens to me today, life is good.
I replaced all of the shims inside the shift head. The shim that was supposed to be "wavy" wasn't... it was mostly flat and the ends were actually curled up a bit. It almost looks like this was a homemade replacement that didn't fit quite right. There was a difference between the internal pattern of the old and new shims. The folks at Brewster's confirmed that the new shims represent an upgrade that will work fine. In particular, the small tab on the old shim that serves as a gate for reverse (pic 1213) tended to bend and hang up the shifter when going into reverse (I definitely had that problem). There was wear evident on the head of the selector pin, so a new one went it. Same with the shifter sleeve.
A "what the hell was I thinking?" moment was not ordering a pair of replacement tension pins. I thought I would reuse the old ones. Bad choice, as they were mostly loose in the new selector pin. Fortunately, I was able to find the right ones at a local hardware store, but burning $4 worth of gas to buy $0.80 worth of parts is probably not the best way to spend money.
A couple of years ago, SLSC98 posted some links to very useful short rebuild videos that can be found in this thread:
http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=89599.msg905945#msg905945 I would add the following video as a good "how to" reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huUETRzXM7kThere are different shifters used in each video, so it's possible that what you see won't match what you're working on. If there was ever a task that benefits from lots of up close pictures as the work progresses, this rebuild would be one (no, I didn't take enough). For example, there were some subtle shape differences between the left and right edge of the shims (one edge has a slight curve, the other has a flat spot) that I didn't notice until the reassembly started. The videos aren't always clear enough to tell which way the piece goes in. Also, setting the plates that do the shifting in the right orientation can be a pain without a ready reference. Other than removing what was once grease from the shifter innards, getting the shims and plates set in the correct orientation seemed like it took the most time.
I followed the advice of the gentleman in the "how to" video and didn't try to remove/replace either of the springs in the carrier. I got too aggressive with the shifter on a previous project car and was only rescued from my stupidity by a sympathetic machinist who put it all back together for me for free.
With lots of good pictures for reference, this would be a relatively quick and straightforward clean up.
Although the shifter isn't going to show much, I wanted to put some paint on it. About that time, I saw a post from Alan G about the Seymour Silver for painting bare metal, so that's what I did. I'm happy with the result.
