Shifter relocation writeup

[STC]

I've been doing some searching on the net for an article or write up on how to relocate the shifter for several days now, but keep coming up short.

Do you guys know where I can find a decent, step by step write up? If not, would anyone on here be a pal and take the time to do one.

 

[letterman7]

Really, there isn't much too it. You'll need to source a shortened shift rod unless you feel confident you can do it yourself and keep the little kink at the back end. It's nothing more than cutting the pan around the shifter, keeping the portion with the rod bushing (about an inch to the rear in the tunnel) and cutting the appropriate sized opening where you want it to be located further back and welding back into place. The piece you cut out to move it back becomes the replacement piece forward on the pan. There's a guy who calls himself LoCash John on the Dune Buggy Archives site (ww.dunebuggyarchives.com) that used to sell shortened shifter rods for buggies; hop on there and shoot him an email to see if he still does those.
Berrien Buggy has them, too, and you make it to length with an adapter: Hand Brake & Shifter Accessories (bottom of page).

If I can find a step by step I'll post it up. I did remember seeing one at one point....

 

[Nic]

STC,

This is how I did it.

1. Sit in the car, with the seat in, and reach your right arm out, and keep your shoulder back. Bend your elbow just a bit, that should be first gear. Figure out what the shifter throw distance is and move your hand back that many inches. that is Neutral. Mark that location on the tunnel. This is center of the gear shift, and where you need to start your measurements from.

2. I think the shift rod bushing is 2 - 3 inches back from the rear of the shifter opening in the tunnel. You need make sure that is part of your cut. Include at least an inch or 2 from the front of the opening as well.

3. I used a T-square, or speed square, and made a line up and over the tunnel, then measured about an inch up I think, on the drivers side and an inch or 2 down on the passenger side.

4. You need to make the exact same measurements you did for the shifter, for it's new location based on the center mark you made on the tunnel. These need to be exact, or damn near close. obviously, if one is large than the other, you ARE going to have problems. Measure 50 times, cut once.

4.5 Remove the shift rod. You'll have to remove the access panel at the front of the tunnel and slide it out.

5. Cross your fingers, say your prayers and start cutting. When you are done, you should have something that looks like this. Oh, be VERY AWARE there are brake and clutch lines running on the inside of the tunnel on the drivers side. DO NOT CUT TOO DEEP, YOU WILL CRY WHEN YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. I suggest using a cut off wheel with a depth setting on it. Cut JUST through the tunnel metal.

6. Swap'em and weld'em.

7. Now, however far back you moved the shifter, you will need to shorten the shift rod the same distance. I moved mine back 10 inches.

8. There are 3 things to notice about the shift rod. 1, the shifter pocket, the shift rod, and the tranny connector. You will be shortening the shift rod from the pocket end. Do your best to mark the top of the shift rod and pocket with a sharpie. Continue the mark on to the top of the pocket, near the shift rod. You'll have to line these up later, so make them VERY straight.

9. Cut the shift rod RIGHT at the point where it connects to the shifter pocket. It has been welded in, so cut through the weld. After you have it cut off, you should be able to pull and small ring of the shift rod out of the end of the pocket. Put it on your finger.

10. Clean up the cuts you made, burrs etc. Don't lose the marks you made in step 8. Line up the marks on the shift rod and the pocket. Weld'em up.

You are done in 10 easy steps. Oh, you can take the ring off your finger now. Just wanted to see if you'd really do it. *hee-hee-hee*

Notes:
Get a new shift rod bushing. Don't install it until AFTER you have welded.
It's a pain in the * to feed the shift rod in and out of the tunnel. Before you pull it out, tie a string through the end of the tranny screw hole, and leave lots of room on the string. It'll help to pull it through the tunnel later.
Be patient with the entire process. If you get frustrated, like we ALL do, take 5 or however long to relax and walk away.

Good luck, keep us posted.

 

[farfegnubbin]

Nic, that was an awesome write-up! Thanks for the great summary!

To emphasize some points:

1. If you're going to use the stock shift rod as a starting point, you need to mark it really carefully with a scribed line across your cut point, like Nic said, so that you can get the shift "cup" at the end of the rod in EXACTLY the same orientation as it originally was.
2. You need to shorten it from the shifter end (like Nic said), not the transaxle end (because the transaxle end of the rod has a few subtle bends in it that would be hard to replicate).

The wonderfully cool thing about the whole set-up is that those clever Germans built the nut plate for the shifter AND the guide plate for the shifter end of the shift rod into the same bracket. And you can still buy this bracket (for about $10). What this means is that "all" you have to do is accurately relocate that bracket and then shorten the rod the exact same distance. That wonderful bracket (which is hidden inside the tunnel, under the part that Nic cut out) will make sure that the shifter and shift rod are correctly aligned with each other.

To add some variation to the discussion, this is what I did on my blue car.

Just like Nic said, I spent some time just simply sitting in my car (AFTER I dropped the pans and test-mounted the seat) to see where that comfortable "neutral point" was for the shifter. For my particular project, my seat was even further back than Nic's, and I wanted my shifter even further back as well. The 'perfect' location for the shifter is going to be a little different for every car/pan/seat/driver. For better or worse, the best-feeling position for my shifter was exactly where the parking brake lever was (But the way I relocated the shifter would work just the same even if it weren't moved back as far.)

Knowing that that special shifter bracket could still be purchased, I decided to just buy a new one, mount it to the bottom of a generic steel plate, and then weld or bolt the plate to the new location. In the end, I decided to bolt on the plate (using some blind "riv-nuts" that I bought from JCWhitney) because it allows me to unbolt the plate and gain reall good access to the inside of the tunnel in that location.

So I cut out the target area using a grind wheel. (Like I said, my target area was right at the E-brake, which I relocated, but you could locate the shifter anywhere you want).

I already had my little generic plate made, with bolt holes and all, so I used it to mark the riv-nut positions on the tunnel. You can see the little silver riv-nuts in the above photo. You can also see my bracket for the relocated E-brake.

Now, the cool thing is that, up to this point, I didn't even need to know how far back I actually relocated the shifter. The original bolt holes were still there, and now I had the bolt holes for my new shifter, so now, at this point, I measured exactly how far back I relocated it.

I was going to try to use the stock shift rod, but I had relocated the shifter so far back that there was no "straight" portion of the shift rod to cut through. So I found a tube of the exact same diameter and bought an aftermarket transmission-end fitting (for about $5).

I still cut off the stock "shift cup" from the front of the stock rod and then jigged things up really carefully to be sure the cup was linear with my new tube. Note: because I was using an aftermarket trans-end adapter -- which is adjustable in length and rotation -- it didn't matter what rotational angle I welded the cup at.

Jigging the rod: (geez...that sounds dirty.)

As I said, I used an after-market Bug shift rod end at the transaxle end of things. Basically, this was simply a threaded rod with the correct end on it to pick up the little urethane (or stock rubber) U-joint coupler. Just weld a nut onto the end of the new tube, thread in the coupler rod, and add on the coupler. I went with a urethane coupler block because it's supposed to have less play and a tighter feel.

Transaxle end of the shifter rod:

The good news is that my rod is very adjustable. The bad news is that my rod is very adjustable. It will take some time for me to calibrate the linkage to where I like it. But I like that I should be able to end up with a very solid shift when I get everything just right.

Here's a photo of the complete assembly (minus the relocated E-brake -- the photos are chronologically out of order):

I absolutely love Nic's idea of fishing some string through the tunnel to help re-insert the rod later. Those are the little tips that make life much easier. Even with my "removable shifter access plate," I had trouble fishing that shift rod back through the tunnel.

Anyway, this is just another variation on the ways in which the shifter can be relocated.

Note the biggest consistencies:

1. Mock everything up very carefully. Consider waiting to do this until you have your pans dropped and your tentative seat in place.
2. Measure everything very carefully. If you used the stock rod as a starting point, you have to get the length AND the rotational position of the shift cup exactly right.
3. Know that there are other things going on in the center tunnel. Like Nic said, be careful not to cut too deeply.

I'm still looking on YouTube, etc, for other examples of shifter relocation on a Bug. I'll definitely post anything I find.

Hope this helps.