Help: Broke my shifter

by Keith Seymore Sat Oct 07, 2023 11:22 am

Does anybody's car use a shifter like mine? And - ideally - have one removed such that they could look at something for me?

Help: Broke my shifter Attachment

I must have really been banging on that thing during the last race.

The presenting symptom it that I've lost the detent going from Park to Reverse and Neutral; In other words I can just grab the handle and move it through it's whole range without pushing the button down.

A secondary symptom is that the button has popped up too high.

Help: Broke my shifter Attachment

The ratcheting feature, allowing manual shifts from L to 2, and then 2 to D, still works just fine.

I am focusing my investigation on this little pawl (photo is flipped as a result of using a mirror):

Help: Broke my shifter Attachment

It looks like it is supposed to engage this series of ramps, which locks it in position until the button is pushed. You can see here it is too far outboard (ie, to the left) to engage the ramps, for whatever reason. That also allows the pawl, and therefore the whole rod and button, to pop up too high.

Help: Broke my shifter Attachment

If I pry the pawl inboard, or push the lever to the right, then it engages.

Help: Broke my shifter Attachment

But I am sure that is not how it was, because that places the shift handle to the right of the console top plate opening rather than centered as it used to be. (The shifter and the pawl move together, side to side).

Anyhow: I am wondering if anyone has experience with this or has one they can look at for me. I am wondering if I've lost a spring or broken the tip off of something, and I'd like to know how it is supposed to be before I start cobbling or designing my own fix.

Thanks in advance -

K

by 73ss Sat Oct 07, 2023 6:14 pm

That happened to mine some years back. Do you see a bunch of metal glitter? I can't remember the exact details but if I recall, The piece that the shifter handle itself comes up through is worn. This is the piece that is attached to the 2 plastic slides. Once you get it apart, You should see that it was square and one side of it will be worn down, allowing the handle to be off center causing the pawl to miss the detents. It's from 50 years worth of use and having spring tension on it. I had a machinist buddy weld the worn part of the square opening up and resized it. I also had a cracked/worn plastic slide. I got replacement slides from a donor firebird shifter.

The piece I am referring to is shown in your 4th picture. This is the piece with the cut-out with the end of the spring attached to it.

I overhauled mine about 10 years ago when I did a overdrive swap. I got a new detent plate with the extra detent for OD. It still retains the ratchet function and everything still works great.

Short of tearing mine apart for pictures, I hope this helps.

by Keith Seymore Mon Oct 09, 2023 7:21 am

73ss wrote:That happened to mine some years back. Do you see a bunch of metal glitter? I can't remember the exact details but if I recall, The piece that the shifter handle itself comes up through is worn. This is the piece that is attached to the 2 plastic slides. Once you get it apart, You should see that it was square and one side of it will be worn down, allowing the handle to be off center causing the pawl to miss the detents. It's from 50 years worth of use and having spring tension on it. I had a machinist buddy weld the worn part of the square opening up and resized it. I also had a cracked/worn plastic slide. I got replacement slides from a donor firebird shifter.

The piece I am referring to is shown in your 4th picture. This is the piece with the cut-out with the end of the spring attached to it.

I overhauled mine about 10 years ago when I did a overdrive swap. I got a new detent plate with the extra detent for OD. It still retains the ratchet function and everything still works great.

Short of tearing mine apart for pictures, I hope this helps.

Thanks, 73SS - you nailed it.

I came to the same conclusion after posting.

Apparently that "pawl" is supposed to be a T shape instead of just a hockey stick.

It looks like the point on the inboard side broke off such that it wouldn't engage and then rounded off just to make sure it gets pushed outboard.

I added some material via weld and then reshaped it and all is well now.

Thanks again -

K

by Keith Seymore Mon Oct 09, 2023 7:27 am

Oh - and I didn't see any debris anywhere.

I did notice that if I dropped anything (ie, the clip for the shift cable, or any number of threaded fasteners - hypothetically, of course) they would slide off the hump and under the carpet and be obscured from my vision.

If there were any broken off pieces I suspect they ended up there.

K

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