Festivic SS shifter

[BigElCat]

I bought one of those Civic short throw shifters off of Ebay for $10, and began looking into how to install it. All of my bushings are shot, so I have to revamp the entire shifter set up.

I pulled a shifter set up from a 2000 Civic at the junkyard. Note the rubber/metal hanger on the Civic unit.

Here's the shifter with the Civic part.

Here's the stock Festiva shifter housing on the left, the Civic part on the right.

I'm going to weld studs on the bottom of the Festiva boot plate, and use the Civic hanger.

[BigElCat]

Heres the Festiva boot plate over the Civic unit.

[KingFish]

Cool idea, good luck.

[BigElCat]

My first step was to make a new bushing for the Festiva stabilizer arm. It's made out of UHMW (ultra high molecular wearplate). UHMW is nylon on steroids.

The Festiva stabilizer arm will be swapped for the Civic arm.

The bushing is indexed to the weld seam, so I can ream out the center hole to the proper size.





This bushing will make the shifter set up hook very tight to the tranny/motor. It would probably tear the stock Festiva lever housing away from the floor tunnel, as the motor rocks back and forth under acceleration/deceleration.

[BigElCat]

I cut extra blanks of the UHMW to pass on to the FF.com community. The finished bushing took about an hour. I used a belt sander and utility knife to trim the blanks. I used a band saw to make the index notch.

I'm not trying to sell anything, but this material can't be purchased in small quanities. Shoot me a PM if you have interest in the blanks. I might consider a production run of the finished bushing, if there is enough interest.

[BigElCat]

Well...it looks like I'd need to mod the exhaust system to make this shifter fit. I'm going to go ahead with the fab work on the shifter anyway.

[Rocketman]

I was able to fit a Civic shifter into a Capri assembly without too much extra effort. Does it not fit in the festy assembly?

You can also achieve the same effect by hammering the ball down down (up towards the shift knob) on the stock shifter, or by slotting, moving, & re-welding it. It's only stamped to the rod. You can move it just enough to clear the exhaust then.

Good looks on the stabilizer bar bushing. You need a lathe to get them turned up true Energy Suspension makes a direct fit urethane version too.

[shampooking]

Good job. Wouldn't the ES or other brand urethane be cheaper than the polyethylene or is that the one available there? I had mine custom fabbed for 10 bucks.

[BigElCat]

I had mine custom fabbed for 10 bucks.

That's amazing! Was that in the Philippines, or the mainland US?

Around here, I can't get anyone to do anything for 10 bucks.

I'm going ahead with the Festivic SS. I'm not going to cut the stabilizer arms. I'm going to put the Civic ball socket in place of the original Festiva socket, and locate the stabilizer arm AND shifter rod in their original locations.

Energy Suspension doesn't list any replacement bushing for a Festiva that I can find....?

[BigElCat]

Here's today's progress. Cosmetic work coming soon.

The shifter linkage attachment point is in the original location, no clearance problems anticipated....

The unit will slip thru the existing hole in the tunnel, and rest on the Civic 'hanger'. No more Festiva shifter drop out problems.

Yes, a Civic shifter will fit in a stock Festiva socket, but the ball is larger, and therefore, not supported as well. The shifter linkage also runs lower than in my "Festivic".

A custom cover will be made from stainless steel, and will use the factory boot. I intent to keep the original knob as well. Stay tuned for more pics.

[Advancedynamix]

Great idea! I'm excited to see how it comes out.

[BigElCat]

I'm making progress.

Here's new pics. If this turns out as nice as I think it will, I'll do a write up from the final install, and back track thru the steps.

I took 38 pics last night, but they're not very impressive.

I put a grease zerk in the shifter even though the bearings are sealed style. I can tell the grease will get through...it will have to be high heat grease because of the close proximity to the cat converter.

Here's an overall progress. I'll post some close ups of the U joint.

[BigElCat]

Here's the U-Joint. I used 3/8 x 3.5 inch bolts, shortened with about 7/16 inch on new thread added. This allows the smooth shank to go clear through the bronze bearings.

[BigElCat]

The bronze bearings are 1/2 OD x 3/8 ID x 1" long. They slip fit into the tube and are slightly loose, I'll try to tighten them a bit. They were carefully cut down to butt together. This prevents the ears from binding up.
Note the 5/16 flat washers tacked to the U Joint flanges. This makes the 3/8 bolts fit snug.

[IdealSociety]

i think when i did mine all i had to do was cut the spring down a bit and it sat in quite nicely. Good to see someone using some ingenuity though