1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

[James S.]

Well, the tranny story continues with this l'il red Vette.

After bench assembling the shifter (bought from CC), the tranny shifted nicely with the exception of third gear, again! The shifter would bump somewhat when shifting from second to third or from 4th gear to third, and the travel was not the same when shifting into first gear. So third gear was still not engaging.

I triple checked all components and still thought my gosh is there still an internal problem after three rebuilds. So, I checked the travel of the shifter ball at the bottom of the shifter that slides back and forth in a grooved valley and low and behold I noticed the shifter was striking the rear bolt that holds the shifter onto the tranny that kept the shifter from full travel!!! This was the problem all along. So, I removed the bolt and ground down the side of the bolt head that was keeping the shifter from traveling all the way back when shifting to third gear, and that solved the problem.

So, the tranny is now back in and tomorrow I will continue assembly. What a relief to solve the problem.

The moral of the story is to ensure the after market parts are tried and tested.

Thanks for all the help and listening to my agony for the past three weeks!!!

Time to hit the rack.

Jim

[Dan D.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Jim, I had the same problem with the shifter I bought. I bought directly from Vette Products, but I suspect they are the supplier for all Corvette parts houses.

I complained to them by e-mail. They did call me on the phone within a very few minutes, but all I got is they bought the original GM tooling and they had never heard of the problem.

So what I did is move the neutral position as far forward as I could and set the flat of the bolt head to hit the shift rod. It goes fully into 3rd gear, but just barely. What is interesting is my friends and I worked on these things all the while back in the 60s, and don't ever remember seeing this problem. -Dan-

[James S.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Jim, I had the same problem with the shifter I bought. I bought directly from Vette Products, but I suspect they are the supplier for all Corvette parts houses.

I complained to them by e-mail. They did call me on the phone within a very few minutes, but all I got is they bought the original GM tooling and they had never heard of the problem.

So what I did is move the neutral position as far forward as I could and set the flat of the bolt head to hit the shift rod. It goes fully into 3rd gear, but just barely. What is interesting is my friends and I worked on these things all the while back in the 60s, and don't ever remember seeing this problem. -Dan-

Dan,

Thanks for the feedback. I think perhaps the shifter could have been from GM tooling, but if you have ever seen a cad machine in work, you would be amazed at how precise a part can be made, but to get the best CAD for the best quality, the cost is enormous. I looked into this for a 1971 455 HO Judge I had where the throttle bracket I had to have was specific for only one year and only about 800 of any GTOs that year were ordered with that stump pulling motor. Anyways, the cost to CAD the part was astronomical.

When inspecting the three holes that are drilled for the bolts, the pattern is off center and shifts to the rear of the bold hold down plate (for lack of a better word.) Had the three bolts been drilled centered, the rear bolt issue would be gone. I always thought the barrel nut that screws on for each rod was too far forward and as is, all three barrel nuts are screwed on 10-12 turns; only about a fourth of the threads available to screw on the barrel nut. Had the plate bolt holes been centered, the barrel nuts would screw on farther to give a more solid gain on threads, thus a more secure set up. But, as is with lock nuts, the barrel nuts are secure.

Interesting note on moving the nuetral position as far forward as possible. After grinding down that one side of the bolt head, the shifter shifts very smoothly and wrenhcing down that bolt was no issue even though one side is ground down.

Jim

[Dan D.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Interesting Jim,

Maybe that explains why we never saw that problem in the olden days. I can believe the tooling wore or broke and was offset slightly to fix it. I didn't notice the offset and it is in the car now. -Dan-

[James S.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Dan,

I called CC on a few other parts and the answer was always "bend the part, grind down, etc. to make it work." And, "we've never heard of that problem." Really? Do you not care about the quality of the product? For the most part though, I've had real good quality parts from CC, but in some cases, like for instance the gorunding strap kit, the braided copper wire is much less in width and guage then the original straps, so I salvaged some of the old dirty straps and cleaned them with simple green and then glass beed blasted them with a very low psi. I then polished them on a buffer that brought back the sheen.

[Terry B.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

I purchased three different reproduction parts this past year that were made on the original tooling per the supplier. I felt two of the items could not be used becasue the holes were off location too much and the third I gave up and elongated the holes. It appears their tooling is worn and it is too costly to repair. The people making the parts use that as their excuse and they do not appear to have a good quality control department, or skilled people for checking it, or the equipment to layout the parts.

[Dan D.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Dan,

I called CC on a few other parts and the answer was always "bend the part, grind down, etc. to make it work." And, "we've never heard of that problem." Really? Do you not care about the quality of the product? For the most part though, I've had real good quality parts from CC, but in some cases, like for instance the gorunding strap kit, the braided copper wire is much less in width and guage then the original straps, so I salvaged some of the old dirty straps and cleaned them with simple green and then glass beed blasted them with a very low psi. I then polished them on a buffer that brought back the sheen.

Hi Jim,
I have bought many parts from most all of the various Corvette houses over the past 2 years. I will say overall quality is 'fair' at best, and it doesn't matter which house you pick from. I classify the quality into 3 different categories:

1. The part is not NCRS correct, but will fit and work, and not look too bad. This I can understand and live with, as I know original tooling will be different and original materials are often no longer available. Even NOS parts can be different as parts made later on often are made with different tooling, or have undergone minor design changes.

2. The part does not fit and/or work as received. Not good, but if you can file, bend, cut, whatever to make it work, then so be it. You may swear a little bit, but at least you have your problem solved.

3. The part is so bad it cannot be reworked or used. No excuse for this, and I have had several things fall into this category. Some of them somewhat expensive. This is a tough nut to swallow.

The best choice is to use your original part if at all possible. Interesting how you salvaged your ground braids. This is what restorers must do. For metal parts, this can usually be done unless the original is just beyond all hope of salvaging. What is tough is the plastics and rubbers. When the plasticizers are gone, which is usually the case, their is no alternative except to replace.

I feel better now. -Dan-

[James S.]

Re: 1960 After Market Shifter Discovery

Excellent points Gents and thanks for the input. I suffered many a anxiety attack over that tranny and my gut was always telling me somehting I still wrong! Always go with the gut!

JIm