Right now my car is pretty much undrivable. A week ago I put in a Ralco RZ short shifter (http://www.conceptzperformance.com/Cart ... 32.199.169)
Everything went really well for a week. Shifts were really nice and precise. However, today I noticed that my shifter was really lose. I thought maybe a bolt came undone so I opened up my center console but nothing was out of place. I can move my shifter back and forth and it doesn't snap back to neutral. There is tons of excess play in everywhere and it's nearly impossible to find a gear and get into it. I'm thinking maybe the shifter linkage broke? I really have no idea, do you guys have any suggestions on what it could be? And could my short shifter have caused it?
Put a new short shifter in a week later shifter is lose :(
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marty1mc
- Posts: 733
- Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:51 am
- Car: 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT - Z owner since 2003
- Location: Fuquay Varina,NC
Re: Put a new short shifter in a week later shifter is lose
Small grammatical change, the word is loose.
Have you checked the mounting bracket that the shifter bolts into? Sometimes that breaks and the shifter can drop, become loose and shift poorly. It has molded rubber in it that cracks and loses support for the shifter.
Next, hold the shifter and the linkage and wiggle the shifter. See if it is tight in the linkage. Next move the linkage independent of the shifter and feel if there is excess play in it as well...
Have you checked the mounting bracket that the shifter bolts into? Sometimes that breaks and the shifter can drop, become loose and shift poorly. It has molded rubber in it that cracks and loses support for the shifter.
Next, hold the shifter and the linkage and wiggle the shifter. See if it is tight in the linkage. Next move the linkage independent of the shifter and feel if there is excess play in it as well...
Re: Put a new short shifter in a week later shifter is lose
Haha sorry about that grammatical error. Yeah my shifter support bracket broke a few months ago so I had that replaced with a new one. I will try to get a video up of what happened but I do think something is loose. If my linkage broke I don't think my car would be drivable. I am still able to drive it but there is a burning smell so I'm not going to move it anymore until I fix this issue.
When I wiggle the shifter around there is tons of play. It's really hard to find the gears because of all the play. The shifter doesn't snap back to the center when its in neutral. If I put it to the right it stays there instead of snapping back to center. I'll try to see what is loose, if not I'll take it to a shop. If anyone could give me any tips I would greatly appreciate it.
Btw, did putting in that short shifter cause the linkage to become loose? I don't think I tightened my short shifter down too tight... I'm just curious if it did cause the issue.
When I wiggle the shifter around there is tons of play. It's really hard to find the gears because of all the play. The shifter doesn't snap back to the center when its in neutral. If I put it to the right it stays there instead of snapping back to center. I'll try to see what is loose, if not I'll take it to a shop. If anyone could give me any tips I would greatly appreciate it.
Btw, did putting in that short shifter cause the linkage to become loose? I don't think I tightened my short shifter down too tight... I'm just curious if it did cause the issue.
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marty1mc
- Posts: 733
- Joined: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:51 am
- Car: 1990 Nissan 300ZX TT - Z owner since 2003
- Location: Fuquay Varina,NC
Re: Put a new short shifter in a week later shifter is lose
I've had a short shifter for about 7 yrs with no issue like you describe. The first one was very notchy and tended to grind if I shifted a little fast, it was a TopSpeed. It broke and I put in a Z1 shifter and it is smooth. Neither of them caused any looseness with shifting, though.