The Install (And Then Things Got Interesting…)
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After work yesterday, I finally removed the old knob. Pretty simple process pulling off the boot and removing the knob, installation was even easier.
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I tested the mechanism before installing the knob, seemed to shift ok when it moved from P down to D. After that I lined up the seam and emblem.
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And here’s the finished product! All was going well…
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…Right until the shifter refused to move from the P position. I couldn’t figure out why the shifter wouldn’t move. Then I remembered that while installing the new shifter, there is a center screw that goes through the plastic piece that locked the shifter in place. However, the plastic hole was twice the width of the screw, so when I unscrewed the knob, it became apparent that the screw was slipping within the hole.
I was about an hour or so from home and I didn’t have any tools on me, so I had to improvise to get the car moving. A light bulb went off in my head as my key ring was made of a bendable metal (RaceSeng key ring) so I snaked it through the hole and shifted the car into gear (way more smooth when shifting as the metal band was inserted, mind you).
As I was driving home, I was thinking about methods to fix this issue. I needed some sort of metal similar to the key ring band. When I got home I did some looking around the house and decided to utilize a metal coat hanger to fit the remaining space in the mechanism. I cut off a small piece that fit and it worked to perfection as I shifted the knob to test and make sure that the newly cut piece of metal wouldn’t move.
When I unscrewed the knob to double check the newly added metal piece, it hadn’t moved from its original place. The shifter has some play in it once fully installed (which is normal) but I made sure I didn’t hear anything shaking/ rattling inside the knob.
I will keep an eye on it for a while anyway (just in case) but it looks like some classic red-neck engineering saved the day!