Sunday afternoon project, 84 shifter

[FinnSVO]

Have to share, I was so happy for result. Probably been discussed before, please forgive me...

Only thing I have really hated on my 84 since first drive is shifter. That too long and totally misplaced darn rod. I have to stretch my fingers to shift to 3. and 5. Or then I just have totally different length arms than average Joe.. Today was nice and too warm afternoon to do anything useful, so got this solved. Just one hour and two beers after I had pulled shifter rod (that stock curved one) from my 88 TC parts car and replaced that annoying original with zero price ;)

What a difference it made. Now shifter is exactly where it should be at least for me, much lower and 2-3 inches backwards. And even throws are maybe half of travel they used to be. Too pity that original knob doesn't fit, but had almost unused 03 Cobra leather knob which doesn't look that bad on SVO interior. And it's quite heavy compared to original, gives bit better shifting feel.

And please don't tell me how much better Steeda etc shifters are. For me this was best ever FREE upgrade. Was so happy after test drive that had to grab one more beer :p

[18lbs]

Perfect upgrade, free, and only took 2 beers to do.

[gt anny]

Can't beat that lol

[SVO8T4]

I like how our SVO time is measured in beers and not hours!!!!!:cool:

[svono50]

Good deal, glad to hear the T-bird arm works better than the original! The original shifters really are not bad at all, it comes down to the geometry of the arm and that damn crappy rubber isolation bushing. Removing the rubber is a 100% upgrade, IMHO. I recently replaced my original shifter unit with an MGW unit, because the body cup area of the original shifter where the pivot ball rides was just plain worn out. I have to say, the feel is almost identical to the original shifter, way closer than I ever expected. YMMV.

[blueboss]

I like how our SVO time is measured in beers and not hours!!!!!:cool:

Why do you think the restorations take so long? I never had a drop of alcohol until I bought an SVO.....just sayin. That's an awful strong coincidence.

[brsvo]

I took my shifter in my 84 apart and found someone had put nuts in place of the rubber bushings. As for the SVO driving you to drinking, that's OK if you don't drive home after.