I bought the short shifter kit from Mark and he tried I don't know how many times to explain to me how to get the stock shifter off. I just couldn't get it. He even sent me a schematic of the stock shifter but that was worthless because it was so small I couldn't read anything on it and blowing it up was useless because of the quality. So there I was scratching my head again wondering how in the world am I gonna get that damn thing off. Well he kept trying to tell me that you take two pricks on both sides and push down. "Really, I said to myself" It didn't compute.........So today I tried again, but this time I put my reading glassed on and put a work light right next to it and look at it closely. I saw that there was a plastic ring underneath the shifter shaft so I said to myself maybe the pricks are meant to be able to grab that plastic bushing so when you push down the points on the end penetrate the plastic enough to give it a grip. Well the plastic ring kept moving around the shaft and I almost poked myself a couple of times but I kept at it.............and damned if it didn't finally come down. Yippee Kiyay Kiyoh
I am posting this so that someone doesn't have the headache that I had trying to figure this process out of taking off the stock shifter to replace it with Marks at Allison. A picture says a thousand words so here is a picture of the shaft and the bushing. You can't understand the mechanics of how it works until you see it. If you look close you see that the top of the bushing that is up under the shaft when it on the the tranny shaft and you can't see it .............has a lip on it and thats what keeps it in the gear shift shaft. that lip rests in a budge around the bottom of the gear shift shaft. So when you push in on the plastic bushing it lessens the pressure of it pushing out on the budge and you can push it down.
No wonder Mark had such a hard time explaining it to me. Only the Italians of which I am one or atleast my Grandpa was, could come up with such a goofy connection.

this is a good post you could repost it in "TIPS" hear in restoration projects
yes they are a bear to get it figured out

i seen a mecanic pull with all his might to get mine off

I have been trying to get mine off for ages, joined Fiatspider today and have my first answer without asking the question Thanks heaps

124JOE wrote: i seen a mecanic pull with all his might to get mine off

haha that was my method of choice..... ended up in the back seat when it let loose

I'm not sure what is the proper way to remove the shift lever. I have been removing them by putting a small blade screwdriver into one of the slots and prying the nylon ring down (out of the shaft) Using 2 screwdrivers I have been able to remove the nylon clip in the above post. Even with the nylon clip out the shaft can still be hard to pull off. I take the shift knob off and put a nut on the shaft. Wrap some bailing wire around the shaft and connect the wire to a slide hammer to pull the shaft off.

To make a short shifter I cut the original narrow section out and weld the threaded portion back to the wider section. This way all the stock anti-vibration bushings remain in the shifter.

spider2081 wrote:I'm not sure what is the proper way to remove the shift lever. I have been removing them by putting a small blade screwdriver into one of the slots and prying the nylon ring down (out of the shaft) Using 2 screwdrivers I have been able to remove the nylon clip in the above post. Even with the nylon clip out the shaft can still be hard to pull off. I take the shift knob off and put a nut on the shaft. Wrap some bailing wire around the shaft and connect the wire to a slide hammer to pull the shaft off.

To make a short shifter I cut the original narrow section out and weld the threaded portion back to the wider section. This way all the stock anti-vibration bushings remain in the shifter.

POST A PICTURE OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT................

I've had that fight myself. Even prying against the ring to collapse it and pull the shifter off is only marginally effective. Sometimes I think it's easier to remove the whole assembly from the bottom plate up and get it on a bench.

Page 60 of Vick's catalog, http://www.vickauto.com/Catalog/Vick%20 ... atalog.pdf, has a good diagram of the whole shifter arrangement. Which is probably the image Matt was trying to send to you.

ok first attempt at posting photos









I used a cut off wheel to remove a 21/4" section from the stock shifter. The first cut was made about 1/4 inch below the threads and the second about 1/2" above the largest portion of the shaft. Then I welded the the threads to the base section.
I had to shorten the shift knob about 1/2" and rout out the inside a bit to fit over the larger shaft diameter. I used RTV on the treads just to help keep the vibration noise to a minimum.

Hope the photos work LOL

Looks great!