Technical Changing the Stick Shift Lever Classic 500

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Technical Changing the Stick Shift Lever Classic 500

Giardiniera1969

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Hello,

First, I am a newbie and wanted to try a simple job. Well, I bought a new gear shift lever because the one that is in my vehicle is not stock. Anyway, I unscrewed the lever, but there is some sort of housing that holds the lower part of the lever in around this little doughnut for lack of a better word. Does anyone have a procedure to remove this lever? I was hoping that it would simply unscrew and I could screw the new one in, but it does not seem to work that way. :confused:
 
Hi, you have to remove the complete gear lever housing from the car there are 2 x 13mm bolts that hold it to the trunk that runs through the centre of your car that houses all the cables and fuel and brake pipes.

The first thing to do is get underneath the car at the back and disconnect the gear linkage from the gearbox. They are joined together by a coupling that has a circular rubber pad in the centre. Undue the bolt on the car side of the linkage not the gearbox side. Then go back into the car and undue the two 13 mm bolts holding the gear stick housing to the central trunk. Now you should be able to pull the complete gear stick assembly forward, there is a slot cut in the top of the trunk to allow you to do this. It has to be pulled quite along way forward to get the linkage clear of the trunking.

Once out there is a nut on the bottom of the gear stick that you have to undo, be careful and make sure you make note of the order of the spring and bushes on the bottom of the gear stick. You should be able to replace the gear stick. It will be quite clear once you have the complete assembly out of the car.
Tony
 
Thank you so much. I am going to have to psych myself up for this job. It might be a nice project this Sunday. I'll take pictures :)
 
Thank you so much. I am going to have to psych myself up for this job. It might be a nice project this Sunday. I'll take pictures :)

Good luck. One other thing to do first is undue the little inspection panel on top of the trunking by the rear seats you will be able to see better where the linkage has to go back through the firewall when you reinstall.
 
Oh another thing to do stick the car in reverse before you undo anything as it will stop the linkage moving around on the gearbox end and try to make a mark, if it is not obvious, where the gear stick assembly was bolted to the central trunk so everything goes back exactly where it was.
 
Just a picture to show what I am starting with :rolleyes:
 

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Well I dd exactly what you said and it worked out great!

1. Put in reverse
2. remove tray and front and back cover around the stick shift lever
3. remove link (car side) single bolt and remove the two 13mm bolts on the passenger side just below the shifter lever.
4. Pull complete lever and link forward and out
5. undo the bolt on the bottom of the shifter
6. replace shifter and put back together

All together about an hour job or so because I kept referring to the manual.
 

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That looks much better John. That old stick looks enormous and well out of place. So much better it's amazing what a difference these little changes make.

Tony
 
It actually shifts better too. The old shift lever I had to kind of force into gear, but this one is smooth. So glad you gave me the instructions as I would have been a bit lost without it! Thanks again!
 
I recently bought a 500 R and need to change out the stick like you did. Could you please guide me through this? I don't have any manuals to help me. I just need to see where to unlink under the car. Thanx much my friend.
 
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