SPF Shifter slop.
Not bad just annoying is what I would call the ¼” or more of slop I had in my gear shift lever. Because I had the center console out I could see the piece of white plastic that surrounded the gear shift pivot ball go up and down about 1/8” before anything else would move. There are four small bolts that hold the cover for the ball so I didn’t think it would take much to fix.
Well I was right and wrong. I didn’t see what I expected to see but the fix wasn’t that hard either. After you take the cover off you’ll see there is a step at the top of the inside edge of the metal stanchion and on the outside edge of the white plastic. It’s difficult to say why they machined them that way but it’s what I had to work with.
I was lucky and had just built some of my radiator plumbing out of 1 ½” copper tubing (a story for another time) and had some thin slices lying around. I started with a 3/16” tall slice and took 1/16” to 1/8” out of the circumference to make it the same diameter as the outside edge of the plastic step. I then reformed the circle and adjusted it’s thickness with sandpaper and files until it filled the gap between the plastics outer lip and the cover. The hard part is finding something thin enough to fill the gap left by the plastic and not include any of the metal lip (see photo). I'm sure you will find other stuff laying around the shop that would work, a metal lath would have been real handy but I’m working out of a two car garage.
In the red circle you can see the step in the metal. On mine there is a similar step on the outer edge of the white plastic that is a little deeper than the one in the metal. The green circle shows where I split the copper pipe to make it smaller around. Maybe they forgot a piece in mine and none of yours will need this. A single ring that filled it all in would be much better than nothing. Maybe some sort of rubber O ring would fit.
Well I hope that made sense. I’ve including a picture to cover the other thousand or so words I should have written.
Not bad just annoying is what I would call the ¼” or more of slop I had in my gear shift lever. Because I had the center console out I could see the piece of white plastic that surrounded the gear shift pivot ball go up and down about 1/8” before anything else would move. There are four small bolts that hold the cover for the ball so I didn’t think it would take much to fix.
Well I was right and wrong. I didn’t see what I expected to see but the fix wasn’t that hard either. After you take the cover off you’ll see there is a step at the top of the inside edge of the metal stanchion and on the outside edge of the white plastic. It’s difficult to say why they machined them that way but it’s what I had to work with.
I was lucky and had just built some of my radiator plumbing out of 1 ½” copper tubing (a story for another time) and had some thin slices lying around. I started with a 3/16” tall slice and took 1/16” to 1/8” out of the circumference to make it the same diameter as the outside edge of the plastic step. I then reformed the circle and adjusted it’s thickness with sandpaper and files until it filled the gap between the plastics outer lip and the cover. The hard part is finding something thin enough to fill the gap left by the plastic and not include any of the metal lip (see photo). I'm sure you will find other stuff laying around the shop that would work, a metal lath would have been real handy but I’m working out of a two car garage.
In the red circle you can see the step in the metal. On mine there is a similar step on the outer edge of the white plastic that is a little deeper than the one in the metal. The green circle shows where I split the copper pipe to make it smaller around. Maybe they forgot a piece in mine and none of yours will need this. A single ring that filled it all in would be much better than nothing. Maybe some sort of rubber O ring would fit.
Well I hope that made sense. I’ve including a picture to cover the other thousand or so words I should have written.
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