My shifter ball has cracked and sometimes pinches the palm of my hand when I'm driving. Annoying. I looked for a good used shifter ball but it looks like they are kind of hard to find and kind of expensive. What are some alternatives? What are most people doing? Would I be correct in saying that the original ball was just plain black with no shifter pattern.. Was it shiny or did it have some grain to it? Any info appreciated...

 

If u r looking for a used one there is a guy just started parting a 91 z28 G92 5sp posted on tampa fl craigslist pretty sure he will ship.

 

If you don't want to spend the money on a used one, I guess you could probably fix your old one with glue or something.

 

My 86 was just a smooth, glossy black. No texture. No pattern, as the pattern is on the console. .....just hit up EBAY. SOOOOOOooooooo many options. I bought one from Sickspeed, although now I'm using a white Tremec ball.

 

The Camaro shifter ball I have around here somewhere has an even texture. Not sure what year Camaro it came out of. Z28s, Irocs, etc should the leather wrapped ball. Seems the 4th gen Camaro shifter was pretty close too. What with V6s, shouldn't be too hard to find one.

There's always the M67 frag grenade... Or a 8-ball with a hole drilled and tapped.

 

My smooth, untextured ball WAS in a V6 car. I assumed since he said it was cracked and pinching his hand, that was the same shifter ball. I should've pointed that out and not assumed.

 

I went through 4 of those under warranty in my '91. Kept splitting up the back side. The dealer must have thought I was powershifting with every gear change. I actually drove that car like a grandma.

 

I'm sure Hawks has new ones. (non-leather), for like 20 bucks.

 

It's possible they changed a few times, I'd almost bet on it. Mine has been on 3 cars I know of (so far), and no problems yet. Not sure I've heard of one breaking before now...

 

Sarcasm? I think Hawks would charge for the weekly spam they send out, if they could.

 

When I did the T5 swap on my '83, I wanted everything to look factory. I was able to find an '82-'83 shifter ball with the leather stitching going up and down from someone parting an '83. It was really nice, I think I paid 10 bucks for it.

 

my car is v6 also. I found a cheap plain black shifter ball. its called DORMAN part number EDIT REDACTED INFORMATION BECAUSE IT DIDNT WORK.... its under 9 bucks shipped on rockauto and right around 10 or 11 on ebay. it has no shift pattern printed on it, which was kind of hard to find. I do a lot of shopping on ebay and I couldn't for the life of me find a plain black one until I knew the keyword . It doesn't look like all that great of a part but it is better than a cracked ball. I'll let you guys know if its decent. This will at least get me by until spring when I do a lot of swap meeting lol EDIT< GUYS IT DID NOT WORK!!!

 

 

Ktthecarguy has the same shifter on his 86 as I had in mine. Right or wrong...for reference...this is what I'm referring to. Post 15.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/hist...n-camaros.html

 

That one looks smooth... But the one I have stashed has a definite orange peel texture. Not the best pics, but I can't get in the attic right now... You can see that the texture isn't smooth.







Wish I could remember what year Camaro it came from. A buddy pulled it out of a thirdgen in the junkyard while I was getting parts off another car. It was in his fiero for years, then when he sold the Fiero, the new owner went with another ****, so I traded the Firebird **** in my Camaro to the new owner for the ball. LOL

 

The one in my '91 was smooth for sure.

 

Hmm, I guess mine must just be covered in clay bar residue, or it's trick photography, flash artifacts, or swamp gas.

I'll pull it out the next time I'm in there digging for parts and refresh my memory. I'd swear it's textured, just like the e-brake handle, steering wheel, etc etc etc. Oh well.

 

The dorman shifter ball I mentioned getting above is not the right physical size (too small) and is does not accept the threads on my shifter. do not buy.!!

 

I like the swamp gas theory.

 

 

Yep, that's what mine did. From the threaded insert up the back side.