How to remove auto trans shifter knob?

[aludden]

How to remove auto trans shifter knob? I can pry most of it open, but something is still holding it together and I'm afraid of breaking the 30-year-old brittle plastic.
I see two small holes in the front, but putting a screwdriver in there does nothing. How is it held together?
Thanks!
Alex

[Nicholas R]

Ahhh! Dont use the word pry!!! There are 2 very small philips head screws holding it together. You must remove them first. Once you do, the shifter very easily splits apart revealing the internals. The front piece of the shifter has clearance holes, the back half has tapped holes (IN THE PLASTIC - no inserts so don't strip them out)

There is a small tongue and grove, tab and slot, whatever you want to call it little connection at the top but this usually comes apart very easily once the 2 screws are apart. The connection only holds together when the 2 halves are completely together, as soon as it splits at all, the connection releases.

I typically (with the car off) put my foot on the brake/turn ebrake on, put the shifter all the way back to 2 or 1, then can get a small screwdriver into the 2 holes. As soon as the screws are out, the 2 halves all but fall apart.

(this is for the early vin style. Not sure if there are any differences for the later style. I assume 1968 is early)

No prying!

[aludden]

Ahhh! Dont use the word pry!!! There are 2 very small philips head screws holding it together. You must remove them first. Once you do, the shifter very easily splits apart revealing the internals. The front piece of the shifter has clearance holes, the back half has tapped holes (IN THE PLASTIC - no inserts so don't strip them out)

There is a small tongue and grove, tab and slot, whatever you want to call it little connection at the top but this usually comes apart very easily once the 2 screws are apart. The connection only holds together when the 2 halves are completely together, as soon as it splits at all, the connection releases.

I typically (with the car off) put my foot on the brake/turn ebrake on, put the shifter all the way back to 2 or 1, then can get a small screwdriver into the 2 holes. As soon as the screws are out, the 2 halves all but fall apart.

(this is for the early vin style. Not sure if there are any differences for the later style. I assume 1968 is early)

No prying!

Thank you! That did it. What happened is that I am missing the screw on one side, so putting a screwdriver there did nothing, and that side came apart easily. So I was expecting the other side to have some kind of push tab.
Upon disassembly, I can see that the plastic shaft that slides up and down is broken in the bottom , and it had been glued previously. :-(

What I am trying to solve is that I can't shift into 1st. The shifter won't slide far back enough past 2nd. So I am hoping there is some kind of adjustment there, to move the entire shifter forward a bit.

[Farrar]

The newer-style shifter is available from DMCH and its affiliates; I swapped my old one for the new one after breaking the shifter rod (oops!) and am very pleased with it.

There is a way to adjust the distance of the shifter travel. First have a look at this diagram from the Parst Manual.


http://store.delorean.com/images/Category/large/4-6-0.gif
There may be instructions on how to adjust the throw in the Workshop Manual; if I can find them tonight after I get home from work, I will post them for you.

Farrar

[Nicholas R]

The newer-style shifter is available from DMCH and its affiliates; I swapped my old one for the new one after breaking the shifter rod (oops!) and am very pleased with it.

There is a way to adjust the distance of the shifter travel. First have a look at this diagram from the Parst Manual.

There may be instructions on how to adjust the throw in the Workshop Manual; if I can find them tonight after I get home from work, I will post them for you.

Farrar

Really? Cause I've got an early vin automatic and I've never been able to get it back into first. I know 3 other local owners with early autos and neither of them can either. I always assumed it was just a standard thing. I've taken that console apart countless times and the physics just aren't there. To get it into the first gear notch, there needs to be more room in the center console plate.

There is an adjustment to the linkages that you can (I believe with item number 30^) make but it still doesn't solve the issue of getting the shifter back far enough. In the end all it does is exchanges the ability to get into park for the ability to get into first.

The only answer I can think is physically sliding item 18^ more forward. Even that seems like it would give you the same "pick between park and first" issue.

When I did my dyno run, to keep the car in first, I had to remove the center console plate to get the shifter back far enough.

[aludden]

Hey! I'm not the only one :-)

[aludden]

Hmmm... would raising the whole assembly higher give it a wider angle of travel?

[Farrar]

Really? Cause I've got an early vin automatic and I've never been able to get it back into first. I know 3 other local owners with early autos and neither of them can either. I always assumed it was just a standard thing.

I can confirm that this is not "a standard thing." When I had my transmission computer cable too slack, in order to prevent the transmission shifting into third before I hit 20 MPH I shifted "manually" -- 1, 2, D. My shifter has the full range of motion and has ever since I bought the car in 2007; I haven't done a thing to it except change the grip.

Farrar

[aludden]

There may be instructions on how to adjust the throw in the Workshop Manual; if I can find them tonight after I get home from work, I will post them for you.

Farrar

I see an adjustment section at G:5:02, but it seems more complicated than I am willing to do right now ... :-)

[Ron]

+1 Farrar
======
If park is correct you do not want to mess with it!
When you get the shifter appart you will see the problem. Mine would not let me go to 1st sometimes...the catch was turning...

[Dangermouse]

Hey! I'm not the only one :-)

Add 2743 to the list. I've never been able to get it into first, but as I don't really need to, it hasn't been high up on my to-do list.

[aludden]

Well, I'm in dire need of brake pad replacement, and Hervey hasn't sent them to me yet, so I've been wanting to downshift into 1st more than usual. I live in the mountains...

[David T]

You need to make sure the shifter is adjusted to the transmission so when the shifter is in, say D3, (or Park) the transmission is detented into D3 as well. It could take dropping the pan and adjusting the cable inside the transmission. Another thing to check is the plastic slider in the shifter. It could be getting caught and preventing you from moving the gearshift handle all the way forwards.
David Teitelbaum

[Ron]

The plastic shaft is broke David...I bet he cant go to 1st because he cant get past the notch/gate
Do you have the pics that was on .com that showed the two versions of gates?

[aludden]

Well, now that I took it apart, I can see one thing that would prevent it from going into 1st.

As I mentioned before, the handle was broken, and the PO glued it. In order not to exert pressure on the fix, they turned the pawl ring so that you don't need to lift the shaft in order to change gears. So that piece is now pointing backwards, and it touches the back part, preventing it to go into 1st.

Unfortunately, the handle is no longer available it seems. Delorean.com says not in stock.

I will have to glue it back. But I should be able to move the pawl ring out of the way and see if it goes into 1st.

I'll post back! Thanks!
Alex

[axh174]

One of the issues I ran into with my early shifter when I was reassembling the mechanism was the plastic flap that slides along with the stick inside the shifter base plate. If you look at the base plate when it is lifted off the console you can see that the plastic flap sticks out the bottom edge of the plate when shifted into 1st. The tongue was ramming up against the metal support/mounting bracket on the center console that you screw the plate onto. It wouldn't let me shift into 1st as a result.

Dunno if that's what some of the other owners might have been experiencing or not. I figure the broken shaft with notch spun backwards is more probable.

Anywho, fixed the problem by taking the mounting bracket off and turning it around; the design if it allowed for more clearance in this orientation.

[aludden]

I've got 1st!

I removed the pawl altogether, glued the handle back, and now it goes into 1st.
I did have a problem with the sliding tab. It was getting caught. Tightening the screws on the plate fixed that.

:thumbup: