Alright boys. Saturday evening while out perusing, the center shaft bolt on my shifter decided it needed to snap.
Pictured below, I'm trying to show the orientation of the bolt, it's sleeve, and then it goes down into the metal sleeve that the shifter handle attached to.
I sent an email out to MGW that night. First thing Monday morning, George contacted me via email and phone, immediately addressing the problem. The parts (as most of us know) are all supposed to be US made, turns out one of their suppliers jeopardized that promise about two years ago (when I purchased) and they didn't manage to weed out all the imported bolts. Due to this, they changed the center shaft design to a one piece unit, eliminating the bolt and overall strengthening the entire shifter. They rushed out that newly designed unit, and I just got it today.
So, now I'll walk you kids through this simple swap, in case anyone else has the same issue ever again.
Here's the shifter base. I had to pull the shifter because I needed to use the car, so I put the stock piece back in place for this short time. This gave me the convenience of having the shifter on my bench to work on.
Make note in this picture of the bolt broken off in the base.
Begin disassembling the base. I already removed the boot, and here are the 4 Allen key bolts that hold this assembly together.
Pull the top off and you'll see something like this. Make note of the spring on one side, and just a little "nub" sort of piece on the other (spring retainer) this is because the other spring lifted out with the assembly. If you forget which way to orient the springs and their retainers, remember the retainers go down, onto the pivot balls little arms, they are not needed in the upper portion of the assembly, as that part being bolted down already applies even force to the surface of the spring. Trust me, I freaked out at first that I had lost two retainers, but then used my brain a bit.
Here's the old pivot ball removed. I'm holding the part where the bolt broke off inside.
This is the new piece and the old "assembly" side by side. I'll let you try your hand at which is better.
MGW was nice enough to supply this little tub of their red grease.
So, I busted out some gloves (I hate getting that sort of grease on me) and lubed up the whole assembly. Sorry, camera didn't make it in for that one.
Anyhow, here is the whole thing put back together with the new part, and properly greased up. And, since some don't know, this is how the shifter lever actually mounts to the whole assembly.
While the car was down, I had a chance to refinish the shift knob. Since it gets hot, I typically drive with a microfiber towel over it. Over time, this buffed my satin knob into a chrome-like one. So, I went ahead and painted in the numbers, then sanded the whole thing down with 2000 grit paper. Looks just like it's supposed to now.
Overall, MGW LTD is an excellent company altogether and this speaks volumes to their customer service efforts. I recommend them to anyone looking for a short shifter.
http://www.mgwltd.com/
Thanks for reading.
Pictured below, I'm trying to show the orientation of the bolt, it's sleeve, and then it goes down into the metal sleeve that the shifter handle attached to.
I sent an email out to MGW that night. First thing Monday morning, George contacted me via email and phone, immediately addressing the problem. The parts (as most of us know) are all supposed to be US made, turns out one of their suppliers jeopardized that promise about two years ago (when I purchased) and they didn't manage to weed out all the imported bolts. Due to this, they changed the center shaft design to a one piece unit, eliminating the bolt and overall strengthening the entire shifter. They rushed out that newly designed unit, and I just got it today.
So, now I'll walk you kids through this simple swap, in case anyone else has the same issue ever again.
Here's the shifter base. I had to pull the shifter because I needed to use the car, so I put the stock piece back in place for this short time. This gave me the convenience of having the shifter on my bench to work on.
Make note in this picture of the bolt broken off in the base.
Begin disassembling the base. I already removed the boot, and here are the 4 Allen key bolts that hold this assembly together.
Pull the top off and you'll see something like this. Make note of the spring on one side, and just a little "nub" sort of piece on the other (spring retainer) this is because the other spring lifted out with the assembly. If you forget which way to orient the springs and their retainers, remember the retainers go down, onto the pivot balls little arms, they are not needed in the upper portion of the assembly, as that part being bolted down already applies even force to the surface of the spring. Trust me, I freaked out at first that I had lost two retainers, but then used my brain a bit.
Here's the old pivot ball removed. I'm holding the part where the bolt broke off inside.
This is the new piece and the old "assembly" side by side. I'll let you try your hand at which is better.
MGW was nice enough to supply this little tub of their red grease.
So, I busted out some gloves (I hate getting that sort of grease on me) and lubed up the whole assembly. Sorry, camera didn't make it in for that one.
Anyhow, here is the whole thing put back together with the new part, and properly greased up. And, since some don't know, this is how the shifter lever actually mounts to the whole assembly.
While the car was down, I had a chance to refinish the shift knob. Since it gets hot, I typically drive with a microfiber towel over it. Over time, this buffed my satin knob into a chrome-like one. So, I went ahead and painted in the numbers, then sanded the whole thing down with 2000 grit paper. Looks just like it's supposed to now.
Overall, MGW LTD is an excellent company altogether and this speaks volumes to their customer service efforts. I recommend them to anyone looking for a short shifter.
http://www.mgwltd.com/
Thanks for reading.
