Caj Darkmoon

I ordered your short shifter from you almost exactly a year ago, and installed it with few problem except that the stock bottom pin bushing doesn't work well with the rounded pin of the short shifter. Tonight I was up at lowes fixing that problem by making my own bushing, and I discovered another problem that is fairly significant.

Im going to throw up a picture of a different STS first so I can illustrate the parts I'll be talking about.



Ok, three major parts I'll be talking about here are the arm, the base, and what I'm calling the 'axle' that threads into the base and that the arm rotates around.

Now, when I had my shifter off tonight I noticed that it wasn't rotating as freely as it should have been and that it was squeaking as it turned. To figure out why I spun the shifter arm around the axle, and noticed that if I spun it one way it would sieze up completely, and if I spun it the other it would actually thread the axle out of the base. The reason this was happening was that the arm was completely seized up onto the axle.

To figure out why I spun it (the arm/axle) all the way out of the base and tried to remove the arm, which was stuck. I literally had to hold the arm and pound (not flail, mind you) the axle against a hard surface to knock it out of the arm, because it wasn't moving. When I did a whole mess of -completely rusted out- pin bearings fell out in my hand. What that means is that this part:



That allows the arm to rotate around the axle completely rusted out in a single year of normal use. In order to get my shifter working close to what it should be again I gave the axle a very large dose of grease so that it would help fill out the now-gap inside the arm of the shifter. Now, I'm not sure if the needle bearings would have fallen out anyways, but I do know that it was completely rusted when I got in there, which I dont believe should have happened. No water has come directly into contact with it, I'm absolutely positive of that, so it rusted simply from humidity in the air.

What I'm curious to know is if this is a problem only experienced by my shifter or by the entire line of ImportShark shifters, and if there's anything you can do to help resolve it? I'm not exactly happy to see a failure like this in a product that is only a year old.

Thanks for your help.

StrikeEagle

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Can you do a writeup for how you fixed that bottom pin bushing? I've been having the same problem and wondering how to fix it too.

Sorry to hear about your shifter...

Caj Darkmoon

You need a bushing that has a hair under 5/8" OD and a hair over 3/8" ID. I used 2 bushings because I couldn't find a single one that was the rights size, and my final ID was .385", which was still a really tight fit. I suggest nylon spacers as your bushings.

REDZMAN

Looks identical to the Megan shifter, just a different knob.

There were numerous problems with that one, I posted about them before.

1. "Axle" needs loctite to stay in place.
2. All parts need greased before assembled.
3. Knob doesn't face the right way when tightened fully.
4. Knob wasn't fully threaded inside.

Caj Darkmoon

I realize what you've posted in the past redz, and all of those are just things that need to be taken care of during an install. Bearings rusting out is another issue entirely.

Also, that's not my shifter, that's just one I used for illustration. Mine's in my car because I had to get back from Lowes.

REDZMAN

No no, I understand man.

But did you grease it? It shouldn't rust if it's covered in grease.

Caj Darkmoon

It's inside the shifter, I would have had to dissasemble the shifter completely to have ever even seen it.

REDZMAN

I know where it is.

Did the shifter come assembled?

I was assuming it didn't, as the Megan Racing comes completely dissasembled.

Hell, the ARK came fully assembled, and I took it apart and greased it first.

Caj Darkmoon

Yes, it came assembled.

Bullfrog

So we can sum this up by saying that anytime you buy an after market shifter to take it apart and grease it even if it comes fully assembled.