Quick help w/ short shift kit!
 

I am installing the factory short shift kit on and 81 SC, and everything went fine, except... I got the shifter back in and it works GREAT except I cannot get to reverse or 5th gear! Has anyone else had this same problem? I am wondering if it has to do with the orientation of the box shaped metal bracket that the shifter rides in. Does anyone know the correct orientation of this bracket. Is there a chance that I got it upsidedown? I am going out now to take it back apart and try again.

The "humped" part of the bracket should point "up"

If you installed it upside down, the metal piece in the lever would hit the housing.

You can use this pic from the tech article as reference.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarti...l/Figure13.jpg

Good luck!!

THANK YOU!!! I did install it down. I'm on my way to fix it. If it helped this much with it installed the wrong way, I can't wait to see how well it works when installed right.

If it still doesnt go into 5th or reverse, then you may have to adjust your shift coupler.

No 5th or reverse still. I have played with the shifter coupling but is seems like there isn't enough travel in the shifter to turn the shift selector rod on the tranny far enough to get it into 5th and reverse. I have adjusted it about 20 times in small incraments. Is there something I'm doing wrong here or what?

You know that the shift rod to the tranny turns in the opposite direction to that of what you think you are rotating with the shifter, right? Keep this in mind when you are adjusting the shift coupler.

I have no experience with the "short shift" kit, but I did have a bit of trouble with "notchy" shifting after changing all the shifter bushings recently (must not have got the coupler exactly back in the right position). After trying to "tweak" it into shifting better and only making things worse (at one point I couldn't get 5th or reverse either), I followed the shifter adjustment procedure located here ((shifter adjustment) . Following this procedure precisely solved all my problems, it has never shifted better.

Jerry M
'78 SC