Tunnel installation ?

428street · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 05:34 PM

I'm starting to get the interior stuff going and did my first dry fit of the tunnel. I did read the manual and the description is brief. I've noticed a couple things.

1. The engine is off set to the left to balance the car.

2. The transmission follows the engine so that the transmission does not seem the line up exactly in the middle of the tunnel.

I measured across the x member brace on the frame the the trans is definitely not in the middle.

I put some grease on top of the tunnel to get my starting point to where the shift lever comes up.

I quickly noticed that the center of the shifter is off from the center of the tunnel. If I cut out the hole for the shifter cover it will be off center of the tunnel. Is this normal?

patrickt · #2 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 428street

I quickly noticed that the center of the shifter is off from the center of the tunnel. If I cut out the hole for the shifter cover it will be off center of the tunnel. Is this normal?

Here's a shot of mine. The shifter is in neutral in this shot.

SSSammy · #3 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:05 PM

Yes, ERA offsets the engine to the pass side about 1". Do not expect the shifter to be centered.

I hate to tell you all the trouble I had with this .. but, in the interest of full disclosure ...

I'll leave out the part where I had to make an adapter plate to reposition the hole because I changed from a toploader to a Tremec ... So I put the Tremec in neutral and set the tunnel in place and used the boot ring as a template to mark the tunnel. Used a recip saw to cut a very neat disc out. It was perfectly centered over the shifter stub ..

I was so proud!

Marked the 4 holes for the boot ring, drilled them, and mounted the boot. Test drive .. in 4th gear, when you let off the throttle, it pops out of gear

Complained to tranny vendor ... they gave me a new tranny

Installed new tranny, same problem. Fabbed new adapter plate ... moved the hole 1/2" forward ... now it pops out of 3rd gear when you let off. Jeeeezzz! Searched CC a lot on shifter boots .. the rubber accordian boot supplied by ERA acts as a spring and pops the tranny out of gear

Undid the 4 screws from the boot ring .. sure enough, no prob. Ordered leather shifter boot ... problem solved. There were also some posts about an Alpine Tiger shift boot that does work.

YMMV

Sam

patrickt · #4 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSSammy

Searched CC a lot on shifter boots .. the rubber accordian boot supplied by ERA acts as a spring and pops the tranny out of gear

Undid the 4 screws from the boot ring .. sure enough, no prob. Ordered leather shifter boot ... problem solved. There were also some posts about an Alpine Tiger shift boot that does work.

There's a trick with the ERA boot. In both of these shots of my boot the top of the boot is in the same spot on the shifter. But if the circles are pushed down (on the left) the shifter will pop out of gear. Simply spreading the circles apart from one another (1 second job) cures the problem. Here's a couple of shots I took to illustrate it.

SSSammy · #5 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:35 PM

Ecksellent, Patrick! Just one example of me successfully chasing my tail .. I'll file this away for future reference! Thanks for the pics!

Sam

Bobcat · #6 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 07:51 PM

Patrickt .... thanks for the tip as I haven`t cut my tunnel yet or done the boot install .... now all I have to do is return several dozen Tiger boots ! Actually , I ran into something similar to this on my Galaxie when I went to the Hurst shifter and lever , but my problem was using a boot with a round hole on a shifter the was flat .... and the toploader doesn`t seem to be as sensitive as the Tremec to the boot stackup .

428street · #7 (**permalink**) 09-13-2008, 08:32 PM

I just noticed one other thing. I can mount that shift lever either on the left or right side. Is there a recommended place?

Seems to make more sense from a centering standpoint to mount it on the left giving me back some centerability. If I mount it on the right I am that much farther off center.

patrickt · #8 (**permalink**) 09-14-2008, 06:26 PM

Getting a shot from up in the tunnel is a little tricky, but this shows you the orientation of the trans in the circle that forms the cut-out for the ring and boot around the shifter. You can see that it is not centered in the hole; the hole, however, is pretty-much centered in the tunnel.