Day 23 ~ Shifter box continued

     I got my necessary hardware from the store yesterday, so I'm back in business. The bolts I had were about 30mm long. A 20mm would work, but since they nylon lock nut and an extra washer (provided but not pictured) was used, I went with my 25mm ones. This gave me the needed clearance and kept me from having to turn the nut for all that extra thread. I also took some painstaking time getting the thread rod length adjusted just right.

Supplied bolts are a bit long

At last it doesn't touch any part of the box at any position. Hopefully that will pay off and prevent any future issues. It's really a neat setup with the bell crank reversal. I've seen pics and am wondering if I should add an extra guard underneath to keep any stray rocks, sticks, or other debris from contacting the shifter assembly. I'll let you know what I come up with.

My 25 mm bolts work perfectly now. This is just for reference.
You can see my washer/spacer config is a little different from Smyth, but yours may work perfectly in one or the other.
The important thing is to make sure you have good clearance and smooth operation through the full range.
Take your time with this. It's not something you want to have to redo at the end of the project.
Also, the cover plate only takes a nibble with some tin snips to get a good seal and fit between the bell crank supports.

     Also, the big metal bracket plate Smyth provides, like the windshield frame, is untreated steel. I saw from the pics that he had painted or coated his, so I decided to spray mine with some rubberized undercoating. I bought that can when I had a Jeep in college with some bumper damage from trying to off-road through a small tree that had grown up in one of the trails. It worked great to cover the paint scraping, and its thick texture hid the dimples from my hammering it back into shape. That was probably 12-14 years ago, so I'm surprised the stuff in the can was any good. The spray nozzle was plugged a bit, so I couldn't get a good pattern. I just sprayed it on thick and let it run. Who cares right? It's just there to keep the rust and rocks away underneath the car.

Not a great paint job. Function is adequate underneath though.
RIGHT: Illusion...it's not that big really, just hanging on a garage door rail.
= )