Been picking at the red ‘74 ex-turbo car and had the time to dig further into the shifter set up.

I pulled the rod off the car because the coupler locating pin (threaded cone) was partially stripped and look what I discovered when I put it next to another side shifter rod I had.

Look at the difference in curve in the one on the right (one pulled off).

Click to view attachment

yikes that's a mess!! Bruce Stone has a jig to bend them back to proper position. I just got a bar from him that was repowder coated, he says he takes all of them and re-aligns them before cleaning them up and repainting them. Mine is on its way back now to me from him after going to Colorado and having a Rauch&Spiegel coupler installed on it. It will be interesting to compare it with my original one on the car now.

Makes big difference in shifting

Thanks gentlemen, I did not know that Bruce has a jig for these.

I installed one that was unmolested and it did make a nice positive difference.

Do you think the messed up one can be put back into shape or will it weaken the shift rod unacceptably? I have all of these that I need, but don’t want to sell one that’s compromised.

Thanks for the education!

yes makes all of the difference in the world, often they get bent with the cv axle comes loose and or someone drops the engine without first disconnecting the bar!

We have the east coast bending service, do it all of the time, as the new bars are NLA

Bruce does some really beautiful work, and is very particular to achieve perfection (if that still exists with a 914!)

Just bend it back in place as best you can....

I had the same issue 20 years ago and just got it done with the help of another set. I may have another bar around here somewhere if you get stuck...

@EdwardBlume , thanks mate, I'm all set but very much appreciate the offer. I mainly wanted to share what I found to help others what have cars that have been messed with and make sure I don't inadvertently sell a bad part.

By this time most all of them are "messed with" to some extent.

Maybe capital M “Messed with” then?