66 Dart GT HT Whatsitgonnabe?
I didn't have the energy to work on the car last week, went to bed at 9 pm almost every night. Being at school with kids age 13-16 all day is exhausting. I hope I get used to it soon.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I stole a few hours in the garage. I started getting the B&M shifter I bought from @ScampMike in place.
First up was to mount the shift lever and cable mounting bracket on the trans. The instructions said to replace two of the pan bolts with 5/16" bolts that came with the kit but the pan bolts were bigger. Good thing I had bolts from Ray!
Then to figure out where to put the shifter. The mounting holes on one side lined up PERFECTLY with two of the holes on the original floor shifter mounting bracket.
Too bad the shifter was backwards ... Took me a while to verify this. It sort of looked backwards when it was forward. So I cut the bracket out and dismounted the remaining linkage. I'll sell this of if I can find anyone interested here in Sweden. It's really worn and rackety.
When I found the right position for the shifter I marked out where to drill. The instructions said to use washers as spacers but that just seemed wrong ang ugly. So I decided to fab some mounting tabs and weld them to the trans tunnel.
I don't have much in the way of material laying around but my eyes fell on the chain tensioner originally from the front clip I bought from Ulf back in april. It was pretty badly rusted and I really should have let it soak in molasses for three weeks but I didn't feel like waiting so I ground the worst off with my angle grinder, trusty old friend from Hilti.
Marked some holes, drilled and tapped - straighter than usual!
Cut it up and broke the edges on my bench grinder, mounted on the shifter with 1/4" bolts and washers from the batch @halifaxhops sent me. I could have used M6 but why not go for UNC when I have it?
I then climbed into the cab with my Hilti ready and put the whole thing on the trans tunnel where I wanted it, expecting to spend half an hour grinding the tabs to line up with the sheet metal.
To my great amazement, they all fit PERFECTLY! There is a little bit if clearance on one of them but three line up with the trans tunnel stunningly well.
I was so pleased with myself that I decided to not push my luck and went for a run in stead. And besides, my welder is out in the summer house on the coast so I wasn't doing any welding anyway (I'll be bringing it home next weekend).
Oh, and I once again found the drawback to not having a sense of smell. I noticed my hip was sort of warm while I was cutting the mounting tabs from the scrap piece.
I didn't have the energy to work on the car last week, went to bed at 9 pm almost every night. Being at school with kids age 13-16 all day is exhausting. I hope I get used to it soon.
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I stole a few hours in the garage. I started getting the B&M shifter I bought from @ScampMike in place.
First up was to mount the shift lever and cable mounting bracket on the trans. The instructions said to replace two of the pan bolts with 5/16" bolts that came with the kit but the pan bolts were bigger. Good thing I had bolts from Ray!
Then to figure out where to put the shifter. The mounting holes on one side lined up PERFECTLY with two of the holes on the original floor shifter mounting bracket.
Too bad the shifter was backwards ... Took me a while to verify this. It sort of looked backwards when it was forward. So I cut the bracket out and dismounted the remaining linkage. I'll sell this of if I can find anyone interested here in Sweden. It's really worn and rackety.
When I found the right position for the shifter I marked out where to drill. The instructions said to use washers as spacers but that just seemed wrong ang ugly. So I decided to fab some mounting tabs and weld them to the trans tunnel.
I don't have much in the way of material laying around but my eyes fell on the chain tensioner originally from the front clip I bought from Ulf back in april. It was pretty badly rusted and I really should have let it soak in molasses for three weeks but I didn't feel like waiting so I ground the worst off with my angle grinder, trusty old friend from Hilti.
Marked some holes, drilled and tapped - straighter than usual!
Cut it up and broke the edges on my bench grinder, mounted on the shifter with 1/4" bolts and washers from the batch @halifaxhops sent me. I could have used M6 but why not go for UNC when I have it?
I then climbed into the cab with my Hilti ready and put the whole thing on the trans tunnel where I wanted it, expecting to spend half an hour grinding the tabs to line up with the sheet metal.
To my great amazement, they all fit PERFECTLY! There is a little bit if clearance on one of them but three line up with the trans tunnel stunningly well.
I was so pleased with myself that I decided to not push my luck and went for a run in stead. And besides, my welder is out in the summer house on the coast so I wasn't doing any welding anyway (I'll be bringing it home next weekend).
Oh, and I once again found the drawback to not having a sense of smell. I noticed my hip was sort of warm while I was cutting the mounting tabs from the scrap piece.