Kirkham Motorsports Assembly Manual

[David Kirkham]

Just ease it in.

[David Kirkham]

Almost done!

[David Kirkham]

This is how you bolt in the motor mounts.

[David Kirkham]

Another view.

[David Kirkham]

Here is Sandwich doing the power tightening on the transmission mount.

[David Kirkham]

Now we are tightening up the final bolts on the tranny mount. We ALWAYS put all the bolts in the motor mounts and in the transmission mount. Then we tighten up the motor mounts FIRST to position the motor correctly and then finish up here with the tranny mount.

Engine install complete. Now we just need to hook a few things up.

[David Kirkham]

Sorry guys--it's Discovery Channel's Shark Week and I stay up till midnight EVERY DANG NIGHT. I don't think it is fair to have sharks on all week. I am a zombie. Don't they know some of us have to get up in the morning and go to work and post on assembly manuals?

You think YOU got cajones??? Take a look at this guy. They needed "something" to give "perspective" so people knew how big the shark was in the photo. So this guy volunteers to go out in a flimsy kayak that is "YUM-YUM-YELLOW!"

The only thing bigger than that shark is that dude's huevos. I don't know how the kayak doesn't sink. Then again, they are so big they must be hanging out the bottom of the kayak. They must be made out of solid brass so I doubt he cares if Senor JAWS gives them a friendly "exploratory bite!"

[David Kirkham]

Now, on to the shifter.

Sorry this is all out of order, but one of these days I will edit the front page and do a table of contents. This thing is getting way bigger than I imagined it would at first. I have people EVERY DAY telling me they are so happy. Dumb me, I should have done it years ago!

David

[David Kirkham]

Here is a picture of the shifter that comes on the Tremec TKO 600 transmission. Notice the big ugly shifter lever that sticks out of the transmission with the two holes in it. The problem here is this makes your shifter handle stick WAY out into the cockpit of the car. BUMMER!

So, we do what every one who wants a cool car does...we yank it out, throw it away, (or put it on eBay if we think some one may want it) and replace it with BILLET!

[David Kirkham]

Notice the position of the shifter box has the shift handle towards the rear of the car. On the Tremec, there are 4 different positions you can place the shifter in. On our cars, we only concern ourselves with the rear most two positions.

The rear position, (the position the shifter currently is in in the above photo), is very close to the position of the shifter in an original 427 Cobra. The front position is very close to the position of the shifter in an original 289 Cobra. On our past 427 KMS/SC cars we have always used the rear most position. Now we are rethinking that--for a number of reasons.

The shifter in an original Cobra has a reverse lock out mechanism that prevented you (hopefully) from putting the car into reverse if you didn't want to put the car in reverse. Today, with almost everyone using the Tremec TKO 600 5 speed transmission, there is no need for a reverse lock out as reverse is on the far side of the shift pattern.

The reverse lock out on the original car is quite awkward to use. It is not what we would today call "ergonomically correct."

The little fangs you pull on to activate the reverse lock out mechanism stick right into your hand if you accidentally grab the handle wrong--much like sticking your hand into the Senor Jaws' mouth in the above picture. There is a very good reason why the shift handle was discontinued in the very next model year--1967--it has teeth and it bites!

As the engine in an original 427 Cobra is pushed very far back, they had to take a shift lever and literally turn it around and bend it down and forward to work in an original Cobra. This makes very quick shifting quite difficult as you actually have to lift up and down on the shift lever to shift gears instead of the normal front to back motion that we are all so familiar with.

The reverse lock out has another problem: in an accident, you can catch your fingers in the lock out fangs and hurt them which is VERY, VERY, BAD if you ever intend to finish Chopin's 1st Ballade in G minor--which may take me another year if they keep this stupid Shark Week stuff up.

So I threw the original shifter out the window today and asked Sandwich (can you BELIEVE he actually came back to work today--after a LONGGGGGGGG lunch) to rescue me. He whipped a new baby out on the CNC lathe for me 5 minutes ago! Time for an install of new, cool, billet parts! Pictures soon!

[David Kirkham]

The first thing to do is take the little metal straps that hold the shifter unit in place. You will need a #27 torx to pull the bolts out. Notice the springs that pop up when you take off the plates. BE CAREFUL so you don't have an unexpected game of hide-and-seek with the springs as they shoot out! There are two springs in there! 1 INSIDE of the other. BE CAREFUL!!!

[David Kirkham]

NOW BE CAREFUL AGAIN!!!

Sandwich has just pulled the shifter up SLIGHTLY, pulling the springs out, and allowing you to see the wear buttons that the springs ride on. Notice the little raised bosses on the wear buttons. They center the springs. They are round and very small. Tremec made them small and round so when they fall out they will roll a LONG way! If they get away, you will probably find them in your neighbor's garage.

Take them out CAREFULLY and put them with the springs, torx bolts, and plates.

[David Kirkham]

This is what we are trying to pull out.

We will save the pivot cup and the pin. We will rejoice as we throw away the lever arm--we are going to exchange it for billet stainless!

[David Kirkham]

You will need to pull this piece out of the shifting mechanism as well. It is pretty easy to just grab with your fingers and pull it out.

[David Kirkham]

Now that everything is out, we are going to turn the shift box around to position the shifter where the racing gods meant it to be. Loosen the 6 bolts that hold it down. You will need a 1/2 wrench or socket for that.






Make sure you put all the bolts and parts in a nice clean place. Here Sandwich is using a new paper towel. We don't want no stinkin' boogers on our parts.

[David Kirkham]

Then GENTLY pry up on the back of the shift box with a pry bar. The box will lift up. It is only held down with silicon. Gently does not mean play tug-of-war with the pry bar. I assure you--you will lose. Gently means GENTLY!!! If you have to pull hard, the pry bar will slip and you will wake up staring at the ceiling (or staring at your buddies laughing at you) as you will be knocked out by the roll bar smacking you in the back of the head as you fly backwards. Also, when you wake up you will easily find the one bolt you forgot to pull out.

[David Kirkham]

Here it comes up. You can also GENTLY hit the side of the shift box with a rubber mallet to loosen it up.

[David Kirkham]

Here the shift box is removed. Notice the yummy silicon that we have to CLEAN off! Also, notice there are 2 sockets that can be used for the shift lever! We just pulled the shift lever out of the rear socket and we are about to put it into the front socket. All you have to do is turn the shift box around and you mover the shifter forward. We are now going to move the shift lever from the rear socket to the front socket.

[David Kirkham]

BUT FIRST!!! We must CLEAN!!! That is our FAVORITE thing to do! Take a razor and clean the silicon off the shift box. (Be careful not to clean the skin off your fingers while you are at it.)

[David Kirkham]

Now you need to clean the silicon off the transmission too.