With the shifter **** depressed, the lever will move the equivilent of a couple of gears, with no detent feeling and no change of gears - sometimes. Other times, feels fine. I know the cable is moving in the housing properly at the shifter, haven't jacked it up yet and checked what's going on underneath.

I have noticed for about a month that it slips out of park easily, but all other gears have been fine. I suspect the shifter cable - if that's the case, are new ones still available, or is this the excuse I've been waiting for to get a console MegaShifter?

 

yeah they are still available at GM. i had to get one for my 84 TA, and it cost me around 60 bucks, and took 20 min to change.

 

Was it in stock, or did they have to order it from a warehouse that took a week to get?

You're not helping with my excuses, you know. But then, for only $100 more, I could get a shifter with the new cable...

Plan on getting underneath this morning. Perhaps it's just a loose nut, as mentioned by someone in another recent post.

 

lol...they had it in stock. .....ohhh wait i mean NO THEY DONT MAKE SUCK A THING ANYMORE!! lol.... i was talkin to the guy at the GM parts counter and he told me that "the stock cable isnt meant to be manualy shifted" ....... i just had to buy it cause i needed my car back on the road, hell i was at the strip when the damn thing broke. i had a race all set and locked in, got in my car, put it in reverse....backed up, put it in drive and bammmm snapped the damn thing.... im getting nitrous in the spring so im gonna get that B&M shifter for our cars with the button on the shifter......... so yeah NO they DONT make such things anymore!!

 

Let me know what you find out about fixing it. I am the one who just tightened up the nut underneath the car but am not sure how long that will work or how often I will have to retighten it. Thanks!

 

Looks like I'm going to need another excuse...

The cable bracket/tranny pan bolts were loose - in fact, the back one was gone, and the front one had about 3 threads left.

When I got the donor car, it just had plain bolts on that bracket, so that's what I used. It now has longer bolts w/lock washers.

Feels much better now, too.

Not made for manual shifting, eh? Perhaps I'll still have an excuse in the future.

FWIW, I have the button T-handle on the MegaShifter in the '57 for my line lock. Would be nice if the wires could be routed through the lever, but it still works. Took a little while to figure out where to rotate the tie wrap so it wouldn't dig into my palm or a finger.

 

i think im just gonna get the normal shifter , then get the one with the button and just switch it at the track.....i dont know how much hassle it is, but the less people that know i have nitrous by lookin in my car, the better!! ....but then that will all go out the window when i pull up to the line and purge.........


oOOOOOOOOOOOO... just found this out.... there is a law stating that the stock GM cable has to be replaced if you are gonna be manual shifting!!! failure to do so can get you arrested and serve 5-10 years workin at jiffy lube!!

 

LOL! funny stuff. I had the same problem once with my cable but I just tightened the bolts and it was fine, until I decided to put in the console megashifter myself. I love that shifter but the $10 dollar part from Radio Shack I had to put in was a pain in the butt. Just to keep the torque conv. locking up you have to put in a relay.

 

The relay only applies to later FI cars, correct? Don't think I'd have to use it on my CC carb setup, if I understand all that correctly.

 

yeah i dont think it applies to the CCC cars.... i didnt see any type of relays when i was changing mine.

 

That is very true. I guess that is why they don't include it in with the shifter.

 

A FWIW update:

Last Monday, I got in the car to go to work, and although the shifter was in park, the tranny was in reverse. Plus, the shifter wouldn't move out of park. Jacked it up real quick, was able to move the tranny shift lever into park, then move the shifter - but it wouldn't come out of park and the tranny was in reverse after I shifted it back into park. Got in another car and drove to work (and the airport later that day).

Turns out the shifter cable housing end, down by the tranny, had broken off (probably from being over-stressed when the bracket was loose), and was too loose to get it to shift into park. And, the cable end was jamming against the housing when I tried to shift it out of park.

The dealer had a new cable - $55.23. The label on it said "no surplus", whatever that means. But, at least they had one more (never did figure out if the post above was serious about them not being available anymore).

Oh, I was out of town when the "big one" (snow storm) hit Denver. Delayed my return. When I did get back, we had to pack up for a wedding in KC - got home late last night. So, tonight was the first chance I had to put the new cable in.

 

On the drive in to work this morning - The shifter has never felt better in the 3-1/2 years I've been driving the car.

Okay, still not a Mega Shifter, but certainly much more positive and easier to move than it ever has been before.