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Neato. Did you make that?

I did look into making one but for the money Fibersteel made more sense.

And, for the record, I do not have the stones to actually jack the car with it. Yes, it should work, and it can obviously hold the car up, but the angle you start at with that little cup on the jack point does not inspire confidence.

For the picture I lifted the right side with a floor jack and then slipped the lever jack under the left side.

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Ed Garageshopped the pic.





I don’t want the truth.

I can’t handle the truth.

Ed uses words like ‘barber pole vinyl’, ‘autopulse fuel pump’, Wendler badge. He uses these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something.

Deep down in places I don’t talk about at parties, I want Ed in that garage.

I need Ed in that garage.

.

Last edited by Sacto Mitch

Three Saturdays ago when I tried to back into a space at Cars & Coffee my shift lever popped off. Disconnected at the base, stranding me 15 feet from my destination. Luckily it was in neutral. I dragooned a couple of bystanders to push the Spyder into the slot.

I quickly found it wasn't broken. Just disassembled. The lever screws into a socket near the floor of the shift housing, and somehow it had backed out. A few minutes later I'd turned it back into place with some borrowed pliers (thanks to this kindly UniMog-with-grenade-launcher owner).

IMG_9230

And I was happy, because I now understood why my reverse lock-out feature had been getting funky.

The stock Brandwood shift lever is a complicated thing. Really it's two levers, one nested inside the other, so the outer one can be pushed down to allow the lock-out nub to dip below a gate to get reverse gear. As the inner shaft unscrewed it made the whole thing slightly taller—too tall to allow the outer shaft to be pushed down far enough unless I opened up room above it by backing the knob off a turn or two.

IMG_9285

I had cut and welded on that box several times during the build in an effort to make it more compact and Spyder-like, yet never took it apart to see how it worked. Now, seeing how it went together, I also realized how easy it would be to replace with a longer stick.

One of the silly things I added to the box was a reverse lockout lever, the similar to the originals. Turns out it works as intended, so to make the shifter "realer" all I needed was a simple stick, not a nesting doll arrangement.

The other night I got to work.

From what I can gather by photos, the real cars' shifters were about an inch and a half taller than the one I was using, including the extension I scabbed on during the build.

Out of the spare parts bin I grabbed a likely-looking old shifter and cut off the ball end.

The shaft screws in with a 3/8-inch threaded rod at 24 tpi; standard SAE fine threads. Of course I had every kind of bolt but that one, so I ran to HD and spent $3 on two Grade 5 (they didn't have 8) zinc-plated bolts.

Cut off the head of one. Drilled out the bottom of the cut shifter and mocked up the parts.

IMG_9287

That loop thingie is what controls the big fore-aft cable. It's about a quarter inch thick. I was going to use a nut for my version but found a piece of quarter inch plate with the requisite quarter-inch hole drilled through it on my work bench. A little surgery with the angle grinder and...

IMG_9288

Shortly:IMG_9293

And then:IMG_9294

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Once installed, the loop for the cable keeps it from backing out.

IMG_9319IMG_9321

The only thing missing now is the correct mushroom-shaped knob. I believe they are available commercially, but if anyone has one loitering about their spare parts bin, I'd sure like to have it. 12mm threads.IMG_9318

Attachments

Images (10)
  • IMG_9285
  • IMG_9230
  • IMG_9287
  • IMG_9288
  • IMG_9293
  • IMG_9294
  • IMG_9317
  • IMG_9319
  • IMG_9321
  • IMG_9318

Fibersteel does make some nice stuff. I have a set of drumskins from them. Also, the front jack points(faux style, not for actual use).

But honestly that shifter is a STOCK-style VW shifter in a cheap steel box with a fancy $2 plastic custom-made knob. $1455? They are a bit too big for their britches over there. They could sell it for $500 and make a ton of profit on it.

And that is why I won't buy anything from them today, they've added the P-tax for replica stuff.

I bought a custom 3D-printed gauge pod, intended for a GTI, and installed it in my Cayman. It was $75 delivered in a week. I'd wager anyone with a 3D printer could sell the knob alone for less than $50 and do quite well.

Get me some white plastic or better yet some aluminum stock and I'll make it for you on my lathe. Then paint it white(I think Marty did this in his former IM).

Last edited by DannyP
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