Shifter "falls through floor" and hits exhaust..

[festiva208]

On the festiva im looking at, the shifter wont stay up were it should. It falls down, so to speak, and hits the exhause pipe. I couldnt see much by crawling underneath it, just seeing the linkage arm hitting exhaust. Seems like only thing holding it up is the boot at the bottom of the shifter. If you hold it up, it goes through the gears no problem, and its supposedly a new tranny, so maybe someone didnt hook it up right. I read up on the bushings for slop in the the shifter, but not about what mine is doing. Is it an easy fix? Any info would be appreciated! thanks in advance!

[floydiancomplex]

This happened to me before and a few others as well. Rubber is essentially the only thing holding the shifter in the car. It gets old, cracks and tears... in short, you need another shifter assembly. You can't really fix it because it breaks at the central pivot point (take of the shift boot and you'll see what I mean) and you can't fill it with anything cause' it would restrict movement of the shifter.

Whomever swapped the tranny probably finished it off when they were hooking everything back up.

[jmye1524]

Build one like this..........http://www.fordfestiva.com/forums/sh...+throw+shifter

[festiva208]

thanks floyd, can you get a new shifter assembly at a parts store, or have to rob one off a junker?

thanks jmye, ill look into that!

[BP-Festiva]

you can also run a bolt through the shifter, Its hard to explain but I can get a picture shortly explaining it.

[festiva208]

thanks BP, pictures always work best with me anyway lol

[BP-Festiva]

ok, the black dot is approximately where you need to put a bolt:


you may have to unbolt the shift rod and move it out of the way but it shouldn't take more than an half an hour or so to put on. dont crank it down to much, just enough to keep it from falling through, maybe use a lock nut to keep it tight

[skeeters_keeper]

This is a common problem... a while ago a member was making and selling little brackets to hold them together, but a bolt like BP suggested should work just as well.

[festiva208]

Thanks BP, that looks like the simplest solution. Does it matter which way the bolt goes, threads going down with bolt head on top, or the opposite way?

[bhazard]

Had to do this on my Capri. Can't believe they designed it like that.

[resuwrecked]

my shifter has been popping out for a while, and tonight after thrashing on the car it popped down and one of the little nubs ripped off so i cant pull it back up and reseat it. time to bolt it up.

[floydiancomplex]

Nice idea on the bolt fix guys... guess he doesn't HAVE to get a new shifter.

[BP-Festiva]

Thanks BP, that looks like the simplest solution. Does it matter which way the bolt goes, threads going down with bolt head on top, or the opposite way?

I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I would put the bolt head on the bottom side with the threaded portion up top, make sure to use washers too.

[Studebaker]

I used two part glue for rubber/plastic. Cleaned and glued the rubber back together. Has held together so far. A month. Got the glue from Advance.

David

[imnotjohnpaul]

you can also run a bolt through the shifter, Its hard to explain but I can get a picture shortly explaining it.

yeah the pictures dont show up anymore. Can you update this?