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Gang,
I was cleaning up a spilled coke from my '66 Starfire last week and took apart the console to get it really clean. On reassembly it took me half an hour to remember how the T handle goes together. I knew I had a diagram around somewhere, but just played with it until it worked right.
To save you all time, here's the exploded diagram from the assembly manual:
The thin metal and nylon tip parts of the shifter are very susceptible to wear/breakage. I usually put the car in neutral to remove the T handle.
Most all of the Stafire shifters I've seen have very well worn holes where the set screws to hold the T handle in place bite the shifter post/column. I have shimmed mine with some thin additional aluminum (not foil - like ducting thickness) wrapped around the internal column sitting just below the button mechanism so I can get the T handle to sit firmly in place. There's probably a better solution, but this works for me.
While I was at at, I thought I'd post a diagram of the automatic shifter mechanism too. This shows how the shifter connects to the TH400 and to the car itself. I've used this to figure out which bushings can be replaced to get the shifter to be a bit more firm in its action. Over the years the holes wear a bit, so putting nylon or teflon in some of them to snug them back to the rod size can help. 64-66 Starfire shifter mounting details
And lest someone with a broken A-body shifter handle think they can use one of these full size handles instead, they are not the same. Ask me how I know...
Somewhere in the past few months I came across an NOS (new old stock) 64-66 shifter. I’ll be installing it in the car when the garage warms up.
Not sure it’ll be a big improvement over the original, but at least the parts will be unused. I’ve already cleaned & greased it with modern lubricants.
My plan at this point is to put in the new parts, then go over all the rods, shifter rod holes & bushings that have worn over the past 58 years and tighten then all up.
To me, this generally means bushing the rods with teflon washers and ruling in the possibility of drilling the original holes oversize, if they’re already hogged out, then installing right-size bronze or yet more teflon.
Where I’m aiming is a tight, precise smooth shifting with no binding. Will be fun to see if I get there. I’m not expecting notchy European, but will be happy if it’s better.
Stay tuned. With luck I’ll post pictures and document what I do…
