Tiger Folks,
Tonight I found out a lot about the stock Tiger gear shift lever.
I had broken the reverse finger grip with my knee when I was under the dash
last year. I had another longer shift lever from a Mustang with a good
finger grip. So I decided to swap the grips .
First remove the shift lever by removing two bolts with a 1/2" socket. Remove
the two spring loaded buttons from the sides of the lever. They are only secured
with dirt and grease.
I made a tool to remove the knobs. 1/4" plate with a 1/2" slotted
hole and two small bolts located 3/4" apart on the centerline of the 1/2' hole.
The bolts were ground down to 1/16" for 3/8". I promply twisted off two
sets of screws in the attempts to loosen the round chromed jam nut from the
black plastic knob. Apparently I needed tough tool steel for the pins which
I don't have.
I then wrapped one layer of 120 grit wet/dry paper around the plastic
knob and clamped it as tight as I could with a SS worm gear hose clamp. A pair
of channel locks were then used to unscrew the knobs with no damage.
There was a coil spring in the hole under the knob on the Mustang
lever, but none on the Tiger II shifter. The Tiger II lever is fairly
streight while the Mustang lever is longer with two big bends in the lever.
I clamped the reverse lockout peg with vice grips and used a torch to melt
the brass securing the cable to the lockout peg. The things flew apart when
the cable came loose. There was another coil spring 2" long by 9/16" under the
lockout peg. There was also a 3/8" od, 1/8" id washer on the top side of the
spring to keep the spring from sliding up the inside of the gear shift lever.
The "cable" is a solid pull wire. .042 for the Tiger and .052 on the Mustang.
There is a 1/2" long cylinder with a taper on the down side that is brased
to the wire above the finger grip. The wire passes through the finger grip.
You have to remove the wire via the knob end to be able to remove the
finger grip.
To reassemble, slide the finger grip through the lever and pass the wire
through the hole in the finger grip. ( only takes 10 or 12 tries).
Place a 1/4" rod about 4 inches long vertically in a vice and support
the shift lever upside down on the rod. This holds the pull wire in
temporally. Thread the 3/8" washer over the wire from the bottom of the
lever. Drop in the
spring on the washer and thread the end of the wire through the reverse
lockout pin. Clamp a scrap steel piece with vice grips to the flat area of
the shift lever mounting ears overlapping the end of the lockout lever,
but not covering the area needing to be brased. This is to hold the
lockout lever with the spring compressed. Do not try to wire the lockout down
like I tried at first. The torch instantly melted the retaining wire and I
had hot parts flying out the door into the grass. Missed me!
Brase the pull wire into the lockout lever by heating the lockout. The pull
wire is small and could melt if you try to heat it first. Add a dab of fluxed
brass and then cool everything in water. Shake the water out and flood with
WD-40 to remove any water from inside the shift lever.
Now screw the jam nut and shift knob on the end and after you figure out how to
lock the jam nut you can install the shift lever back on the shifter. If
you lost
the two spring loaded buttons when you first removed the shift lever then
spend a few hours finding them. They are needed.
James Barrett Tiger II 351C and others
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