when i put the car into reverse or any other gear, the shifter has so much play in it its not funny. the car shifts by transmision fine. its just the inside shifter without pressing the button. when i put the car into another gear, you can actually move the shifter around a little without pressing the button and it will lock after playin with it a little. it does not lock all the way but it does not come out. I was thinking maybe i need whole new assembly. whats the problem here fellas?

 

guess it's possible that your actual shifter is worn out, and if so, i don't see any reason why you couldn't simply replace it. Mine doesn't have "excessive" play in it, and it's pretty well secured in all gears, the only time it might have a problem is park, and that's because i had to remove some of the "stop" at the end of the shifter to clear my 4th gen console....shifters are the should be the same from any thirdgen, wouldn't be a bad idea to simply go grab one and install....they come out w/ 4 bolts, the shifter cable, and an electrical connection for the backup lights.

 

Had a similar situation on my old '84. A short while after the slack progressivly worsened, the cable end fell off the arm at the transmission (250k+miles of labor made the mount/pivot eventually sheer in two). Any slack in an auto shifter will mostly likely from the cable ends where it is mounted to the trans or shifter. Unless the shifter is moving in all directions a little, I wouldn't suspect it personally.

 

good lookin out feelas il just go to a junk yard and get another one. one last qestion, will the shifters in the firebirds fit as well? and am i looking for 82-92 birds and camaros for this part?

 

never had to change to a maro version (as both are very common in the yards) but i wouldn't see why not. Either or will have the same style connections along with being "roughly" the same size, if they're not entirely the same all together...my vote is for the latter.

 

thank you sir

 

Along the lines of what deadbird said, make sure the linkage isn't falling apart at your trans first. I lost one of the pan/linkage bolts in my driveway; coudln't get the car out of park easily. Looked underneath and saw the linkage, one loose bolt, and one bolt sitting on the concrete. I lucked out!

The "clicking" you feel when you shift gears with the stock shifter is all from the trans. If you disconnect the cable at the trans, the shift flops around like a limp... shifter. Compare that to a B&M shifter, and the stock one will look super-cheap. The "detents" (that allow you to shift up, from first, without the button- but require the button to downshift) are just raised little notches.

 

skip that... i just got the year one catalog for f-bodys. It has a Hurst dual gate shifter (aka: "his and hers") for the automatic 3rd gen f-bodies... the 700 r4 and the and the 200 4r.

 

Is the linkage the thing that has the plastic/ruber thing that goes parallel on it? what if this thing is bad? and also can someone get a picture of this assembly for me? thanks

 

Yep, that's it. It's underneath the car, on the driver's side of the transmission pan. The linkage is part of a metal bracket that bolts to the trans pan- it re-uses two of the trans pan bolts. If those bolts loosen up, the bracket can move around, and you'd feel it in the shifter.

Or do like me and put the B&M Megashifter in! http://store.summitracing.com/partde...part=BMM-80692

 

good lookin out for me sir.