Rich and I worked on fixing the sloppy shifting problems inherent in an old Bird due to wear and tear. It is more like, Rich worked, while I cleaned excess paint off the chrome horn ring someone had screwed up while painting it in the past, and handing him tools when he needed them...
The steering wheel assembly came off easily enough. Then it was into it to take out the components, being veryyyy careful not to drop the screws down inside the steering column! We had the printed out instructions from the Squarebird Technical section to go by, but Rich is not a newbie at pulling steering gear or working on cars like this. He cut his teeth on cars of this era when he first started working as a mechanic.
It took him several hours to complete, but he got the new detent plate, new shift lever, and bell housing cowl in place and all back together again. It works great! The sloppiness is gone. The potential problem of it slipping out of park should be gone. The new detent plate is better then the original one. Mine was pretty well worn and grooved heavily. The rubber grommet on the end of the shift lever was GONE! The "key" end of the shift lever was pretty badly worn off also. The bell housing cowl piece where the shift lever goes into was pretty worn also. It appears that we will not have to change out the bushings at the transmission end.
If you have this problem and you can do this yourself, or have a good mechanic who can, get the parts and do it! The bell housing collar was the most expensive thing. But it will probably need to be replaced also. It is all tight and right now! Ray ~ Yellow Bird.
The steering wheel assembly came off easily enough. Then it was into it to take out the components, being veryyyy careful not to drop the screws down inside the steering column! We had the printed out instructions from the Squarebird Technical section to go by, but Rich is not a newbie at pulling steering gear or working on cars like this. He cut his teeth on cars of this era when he first started working as a mechanic.
It took him several hours to complete, but he got the new detent plate, new shift lever, and bell housing cowl in place and all back together again. It works great! The sloppiness is gone. The potential problem of it slipping out of park should be gone. The new detent plate is better then the original one. Mine was pretty well worn and grooved heavily. The rubber grommet on the end of the shift lever was GONE! The "key" end of the shift lever was pretty badly worn off also. The bell housing cowl piece where the shift lever goes into was pretty worn also. It appears that we will not have to change out the bushings at the transmission end.
If you have this problem and you can do this yourself, or have a good mechanic who can, get the parts and do it! The bell housing collar was the most expensive thing. But it will probably need to be replaced also. It is all tight and right now! Ray ~ Yellow Bird.
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