I thought it was a rubber isolator type coupler, but it’s not. And it turns out nobody makes such a thing for the trucks Getrag g360 transmission.
So I decided to make the solid steel coupler into an isolator bushing with crap I’ve got laying around.
Why?
Because it seems like a ton of transmission noise broadcasts into the truck via the solid steel stick shift and it’s annoying. Semi trucks use isolation bushings on the shift stick to quiet them down, so why not try it on this?!
What’s the worst that can happen? Mushy shifting? It comes apart and I can’t shift at all?
Whatever. Let’s do this!😄😄
The above picture is me turning down a portion of the steel coupler that I will then cut off and turn into a press-fit insert, and the other portion will get some stuff welded to it to form a cup to accept a rubber bushing.
Here’s the “cup” portion all welded together.
Here it all is pressed together and mocked up.
In the final assembly, I felt that the press fit of the inner threaded bung wasn’t as tight as I’d hoped for, so I compensated by slathering all the parts in Locktite green bonding compound to help glue it all together. It seems to have done the trick.
The rubber coupler assembly, or Franken-shifter as I have dubbed it, really needed a way to tighten it to the transmission shifter stub. I just couldn’t bear to use a pipe wrench on it and mangle it up even though nobody will ever see it, so I roughed some half-ass wrench flats with the mill.
Here’s it is all mocked up. It has more compliance or squish than I’d hoped, but a softer coupler should mean more noise isolation, and this isn’t a precision race shifter, so we will run it and see what happens.
Here it is all installed, and it appears to fit and clear and work ok. You’ll notice the back bend at the bottom of the shift stick. The stock shifter is straight. I have to bend mine to clear the seat because the engine and transmission were moved back in the chassis 5 1/2 inches to allow room for the radiator and intercooler in the Ford engine bay.
Ol’ Yeller is making a very special trip tomorrow and we will get a chance to test this shifter out then. More on that trip hopefully soon to come!