Tools you will need:

13mm Socket with long extension
13mm Wrench
5mm Allen wrench
1 or 2 phillips screw drivers.
Vise or C-clap
Loctite (supplied)

Procedure

Removal

1. Easiest way to remove the base of the old cover seems to be to grab the top in the middle and pull up and back a little.

2. Pull up the rubber inner cover.

3. Remove the clip that holds the shifter knob on and pull the knob off with the covers and set aside.

4. Remove the black rubber grommets on the shifter handle and save them to put on your new shifter handle. Pull them up off the top of the shifter. Be gentle with them, they are old and made of rubber and could break.

5. Remove the circlip or E-clip that holds your shifter to the shift rod and separate the two.

6. Remove the two 13mm bolts that hold the shifter base into the car. The bolts with the yellow paint on them.

7. Pull the shifter with the base attached out of the car.

8. Now comes removing the ball cup from the bottom of the shifter. Be very careful when doing this step, you can easily hurt yourself. I have found two ways to remove the ball cup without breaking it. You can use either 1 or 2 screwdrivers. Put the screwdriver on the side of the ball cup and pry up until it pops off. Wear safety glasses because this thing can go flying. Or use 2 screwdrivers on both sides of the ball cup and pry up until it flies off. I have had good luck both ways. DON’T put the screw driver straight in to pry as this can break the ball cup.

Another way to help avoid breaking the plastic ball cup is to heat/warm up the plastic first, before removing it. This can help make the plastic more pliable and less likely to break. Evenly heat the plastic and be careful not to heat it too much so it doesn’t melt or deform. One easy suggestion is to boil water in a pot and submerge the end of the shifter in the water for a few minutes. This will help make the plastic more flexible. A safe heat range for the plastic is 250F degrees or less.

Installation

9. Now install the ball cup on your new shifter. Hold the new shifter, the shifter base, and the ball cup together and place in a vise or clamp. Make sure they are lined up and slowly tighten the vise until the ball cup snaps onto the ball.

10. Reinstall the black rubber parts on the new shifter. Slide them on from the top down. Remember to be gentle with them, they are old.

11. Install your new shifter into your car. An easy way to do this is to slide the base in at an angle. Make sure you get the base all the way in and down. The foam can get in the way and get trapped under the base. Slide the base back and forth a little to make sure no foam is trapped under it.

12. Bolt the base back into the car.(2 13mm bolts) Little hands work best here. Take your time, they can be a pain to get in. DON’T tighten the bolts all the way. Just make them hand tight for now.

13. Take the bolt and put one bearing on the end(washer then bearing then washer). Don’t forget to put some grease on the bearings before installing them. Then put the bolt through the rod and put the last bearing on the bolt. It should look just like the picture.

14. Now you can thread the bolt into the shifter. The bolt should be fairly snug, but not too tight. The shifter should be able to shift smoothly without feeling resistance from the bearings. If it’s hard to move the shifter then this bolt it too tight. Then put some loctite on the threads and install the nut. Make sure the bolt doesn’t spin loose while putting the nut on. The nut will act like a jam nut up against the shifter and combined with the loctite, will keep everything tight but still moving freely.

15. Make sure the car is in neutral. The shifter base should still be only hand tight. If you tighten the base all the way you are going to need to loosen the 13mm nuts until they are hand tight. The pictures below show how the shifter should NOT be. Looking from the side, the shifter should be leaning back a little but not all the way. It should be right in the middle of these two pictures. I just guess at the adjustment, you will know if you got it right if the car will shift into all the gears (at the end of the installation). To do this adjustment, all you have to do is slide the base forward or backwards. When you have the shifter leaning slightly back tighten the 2 13mm bolts that hold the base on the car.

16. With the car in neutral, the shifter should be in the middle of the metal oval ring. The distance between the bolt head and the metal ring should be close to the same distance as the nut and the metal ring. If these measurements are way different then skip to step #23

17. Shift the car into all the gears to make sure it works. Make sure the shifter bolt doesn’t hit the metal oval ring. If your car goes into all the gears then you are done. If not, the shifter needs to be adjusted side to side, go to step #23

18. Slide the shifter handle back onto the shifter and put the clip back on the bottom of the handle.

19. Put the rubber boot back down and in place. Then put the shifter cover back down and into place.

You are now done and you should have a shifter free of play. If you don’t or have any questions, please email us.

Only do these next steps if your shifter isn’t centered inside the metal oval ring. Example: If the shifter hits one side of the metal oval ring while shifting.

Before removing the rear wheel make sure you have blocked the front wheels so the car can’t roll, and there is a proper jack stand holding the car up. Do not rely on the emergency brake to keep the car from rolling.

20. Remove the left (driver’s side) rear wheel.

21. Make sure your car is in neutral. Locate the transaxle and locate the shifter linkage (goldish color). Take a 13mm and 17mm wrench and loosen the bolt and nut in the last picture. Don’t remove the nut, just loosen it a little. Now have someone hold the shifter inside the car in the center of the metal oval ring. While they are holding the shifter inside the car, tighten the bolt and nut back up. Now try to shift the car into all the gears and make sure it all works. If it does then go back to step #21 and install the shifter cover back on the car.