i have a side shift in my 71 . i have managed tomess up the adjustment on the shifter. i have read the Pelican method to do this. are there any other suggestions or ways to properly get it right!

The Haynes manual is pretty straight forward with it's directions !!!!!

I place my tranny in reverse, snap a pair of vise grips on the rear shifter rod and turn it all the way to the right (in direction of travel ... front to rear) and tie off the vise grips.

I then go to the shifter, push it all the way left (position for Reverse and First), move it to the reverse position and while still holding it against the spring pressure, lock the bolt down.

To me, this ensures that the built in lock out (springs) will prevent me from constantly nicking reverse when shifting from first to second.

Remember to remove the vise grips.

why hasnt anybody used 2-3?

its easy enough to put the tranny in N there, and do everything there, instead at 1-R??

I had to drop my engine twice, sigh!

I can adjust it in 5min by placing the tranny in 3rd with the stick if you can, loosening the pinch bolt, move the stick to where it is touching the spring plate and it is where you will want 3rd to be in the future, tighten the pinch bolt.

Clear as mud? Maybe I will do a photo piece on this over my winter break.

My problem was that the shift rod simply did not want to turn, no matter how much you loosen the pinch bolt. I did not have a suitable needle nose vise grip to apply enough torque. Ended up unbolting the shifter from the tunnel so I could pull it off the rod completely and insert it again to gain a different positioning.

Once I was done I noticed that the actual change of position was minuscule compared to the scratch marks I had made to mark the position before disassembly. This was to remedy a situation where the idle position as provided by the spring mechanism ended up on the 4/5 gate instead of 2/3 after welding the broken tunnel shift rod back together again.

Haven't had it on the road yet for a real test, keep your fingers crossed

Today I was finally able to take it for a spin where I could get beyond 2nd gear, and the results are fantatsic. The car never shifted this good before, especially the 3 -> 4 change is nice and smooth as it should be. I don't have to forcibly guide the shifter straight up into neutral, right and then straight up to get into gear.

Ah, I see we neglected to tell you that you need to pull the coupler off of the shaft, reposition and reinstall due to the fluting on the end of the shifter rod. This makes it difficult to just loosen the bolt and twist. I am glad to hear that your back to running well.