Hurst Shifter Replacement

classical glass · #1 (**permalink**) 09-22-2019, 07:16 AM

HI everyone, I have a Richmond Gear (Doug Nash) transmission in my ERA #56&. My shifter is terrible extremely sloppy. I'm not sure what's in there right now because I have to wait to get it on a lift. My question is How difficult is it to change out the shifter and what is the part number of a replacement Hurst? The shifter is original from when the car was built.
Thanks....

66gtk · #2 (**permalink**) 09-22-2019, 08:26 AM

Who completed the assembly on the car? Peter may help look up if they installed the shifter and what type. If it looks like an original style, they routinely used the long shifter to resemble the Toploader.

I had a 427 car with the Richmond and the long shifter. It was not the easiest to operate (compared to a Toploader) and there are a couple threads here on this combo already. Sloppy is the not the word I would choose to describe it though. Perhaps yours is needing adjustment or repair? I'm not sure there is a better option, than what ERA has likely already provided for your car when it was built (assuming it was assembled correctly).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT_ABuizNQk

cycleguy55 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-22-2019, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classical glass

HI everyone, I have a Richmond Gear (Doug Nash) transmission in my ERA #56&. My shifter is terrible extremely sloppy. I'm not sure what's in there right now because I have to wait to get it on a lift. My question is How difficult is it to change out the shifter and what is the part number of a replacement Hurst? The shifter is original from when the car was built.
Thanks....

i have the same transmission and recently swapped out the Hurst shifter for the Long (both came with the car). The Long is VERY sloppy in the 3-4 gate. I'm told this may be due to weak centering springs, but I haven't yet chased Long for replacement springs. I believe you can pull that portion of the mechanism out to fix it without pulling the whole shifter assembly.

BTW, I didn't find swapping the shifters that difficult, but there are spots that are pretty tight in there for turning wrenches. The toughest part was probably dealing with those d**n spring clips. Also a challenge was inserting and removing the pin for adjusting the shift rods. I ended up using a bolt that was just perfect in length - long enough to hold the shift arms in place but short enough to be able to removed after everything was bolted down.

The box my Hurst shifter came in is labelled "Doug Nash 5-Speed Shifter", and it's shifter #407-0015. I assume you can still find it somewhere, though it may not be easy to find.

BTW, the reason I swapped out the Hurst is that it doesn't have reverse lockout, unlike the Long shifter.

classical glass · #4 (**permalink**) 09-22-2019, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cycleguy55

i have the same transmission and recently swapped out the Hurst shifter for the Long (both came with the car). The Long is VERY sloppy in the 3-4 gate. I'm told this may be due to weak centering springs, but I haven't yet chased Long for replacement springs. I believe you can pull that portion of the mechanism out to fix it without pulling the whole shifter assembly.

BTW, I didn't find swapping the shifters that difficult, but there are spots that are pretty tight in there for turning wrenches. The toughest part was probably dealing with those d**n spring clips. Also a challenge was inserting and removing the pin for adjusting the shift rods. I ended up using a bolt that was just perfect in length - long enough to hold the shift arms in place but short enough to be able to removed after everything was bolted down.

The box my Hurst shifter came in is labelled "Doug Nash 5-Speed Shifter", and it's shifter #407-0015. I assume you can still find it somewhere, though it may not be easy to find.

BTW, the reason I swapped out the Hurst is that it doesn't have reverse lockout, unlike the Long shifter.

There is no way to get at it from the bottom, you can barely can see it. I take it the tunnel needs to be removed. How big of a job it that?

66gtk · #5 (**permalink**) 09-22-2019, 04:19 PM

ERA 488 had installed what the invoice indicated was "Custom Long Shifter to look as Orig."
There was no reverse lockout. There was the appearance of one, but that was for looks only. It was quite easy to grind into reverse a bit when downshifting from 5-4 since Reverse was directly under 5 in the shift pattern. I'm going through the gears in the video I linked to above.

Removing the tunnel - pull the seats, remove the rear trim behind the seats. Remove the screws for the tunnel and the dash tubes. Unbolt the parking brake and lay it off to the side, along with the boot. Remove shifter trim ring, boot and handle/ball.

C5GTO · #6 (**permalink**) 09-23-2019, 08:55 AM

I have the Richmond Gear 4+1 trans and Hurst shifter combo in my Cobra. A few years ago, the shifter started feeling more sloppy than usual. When I checked it out, the bolts that attach the shifter to the tail shaft housing had worked loose. So the sloppiness wasn't the shifter per see but the loose connection to the transmission. Re-tightening the mounting bolts took all the play out and things were back to the prior state.

So you might want to check out your current shifter before purchasing a new one. Might be something that's fixable. Just a thought.

classical glass · #7 (**permalink**) 09-23-2019, 11:44 AM

Thanks All....

cycleguy55 · #8 (**permalink**) 09-23-2019, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classical glass

There is no way to get at it from the bottom, you can barely can see it. I take it the tunnel needs to be removed. How big of a job it that?

Mine is a West Coast Cobra, and most of them have BBFs and C6 transmissions, so the tunnel is probably wider than yours. That's a good thing, because the tunnel is not removable and any work either happens from the bottom or through the hole in the top.