The roller is soon to become a runner and I am setting up my shifter.
I've got the shift rods hooked to the transmission and at the firewall. Now I need to hook it to the shift lever. I figured that I could put the trans into 1st gear and then align the splines at the lever. Fighting the 1st/ rev lock out spring was too difficult and I quit for the night.

I am wondering what the tricks are to get the setting at the shift lever. Should I put it in 2nd or 3rd then attach? I'd like to do it once!
thanks
-Rob

Yes, use 2nd or 3rd. That procedure has been outlined many times here before.

--DD

1. Take the shifter out.
2. Take the cover off the side shifter console on the transmission.
3. Shift the transmission into second at the shift console by putting it in the middle and pulling straight back.
4. Put the shifter back in without attempting to hook up the link to the rod.
5. Hold the shifter against the spring gate, and slide the shaft into the shifter.
6. At the shift console, put the trans into neutral.
7. Make sure the bottom part of the shifter is vertical and tighten the pinch bolt.

That should get it aligned.

I did this recently and also found if not aligned right shifting into 4th and 5th would bind up, linkage would hit on shifter rear bolts.
So before closing up make sure all gears are easily reached and shifter and bolts don't hit tunnel.

Here's an important item I didn't understand until THOMAS walked me through it.

The shift lever to the shift rod does not contain a spline. I thought it did,and kept removing the shift lever from the front of the shift rod. What a PIA!!!

The shift lever assembly has what appears to be a splined end. The shift rod itself has a female end, but the female end is not splined. The splined shift lever end is that was only so that the bolt from the shift rod has something to bite into.

In other words, you can loosen the bolt on the shift rod and move the shift lever to one side without seperating the two connectors.

I must have seperated the two connectors a dozen times before I understood

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Eric

If you cant get the stick shift end to move as Eric stated, you have to remove the coupler from the tunnel rod and then reinsert. An easy way to do this is to loosen the 3 bolts holding the stick shift assembly in and slide the whole works forward, remove, rotate, reattach and then bolt it back down loosely. Its easy for me to do this, but I rule