1959 Shifter problems

[Stephen R.]

I have a 59 Vette that I've owned for the last 35 years and am in the process of correcting problems that I've lived with for that time period. I have just replaced my sloppy old stock shifter and old rods with a tight old stock rebuilt shifter with all new rods, pins clevises. The old shifter would not shift into 4th and stay there, it would pop out. I had the "new" shifter installed and drove the car home without the shift plate installed. The shifter worked flawlessly. I installed the plate and now the "popping" out of 4th is again occurring. I know the shifter is now hitting the plate and preventing the proper seating in 4th. Is this just an adjustment of the rod length? If so, how's the best way to do the adjustment without affecting how it shifts into 3rd? Also, I live in the western suburbs of Philly. Pa. Does anyone know of a knowledgeable corvette person/mechanic in that area that I could contact?
In the future, I'm also going to try to install a windshield washer system and the ignition shielding. I'll have a ton of question on those subjects.

[Bob B.]

Re: 1959 Shifter problems

Stephen,

I had the same problem, but it was the boot and not the shifter. The repro boots are very thick rubber and shifting to fourth is like having a big rubber band continuously pulling your lever back toward neutral. This usually occurs during coasting.

I trimmed some off the lower right edge of the boot and reinstalled it as far toward fourth as possible without having the edge on the reverse corner pull out from under the plate. Try removing the plate and let the boot just sit free on the shift lever and drive it around. If it stops coming out of 4th, that's your problem. If it still comes out, then maybe someone can give you the address of that mechanic in your area.

Good luck!

Bob

[Stephen R.]

Re: 1959 Shifter problems

Thanks Bob for the advice. It does feel as if I'm pushing against that rubber boot when I try to jam it into 4th. I have also toyed with the idea of making a boot out of some red leather that I have left over from lining the trunk and soft top boot areas.