I bought a 1969 Firebird 2 months ago and have just started tearing it down. It came original with the 350 2bbl with the automatic transmission. He changed over to a 4bbl with a Muncie 4speed. The floor has been cut to accomodate the shifter and I noticed that it hits against the side. Are their differences in the shape of the floor for original 4sp cars or could it be installed wrong? I can easily modify the sheet metal slightly to allow for the room. Any help is appreciated.
Most likely have the wrong shifter body/housing, mounting plate etc. I know my car was a major mess, wrong shift body with the wrong mounting plate with the wrong shifter arm etc. You might want to check everything and start over and save yourself tons of headaches...
Thanks for the quick reply, any idea on how to check the numbers for correct match, etc? I am pulling the engine and tranny tonight so I coud start researching tomorrow for the problem.
I found all the proper numbers for all the correct parts by doing a Muncie and a Hurst search on the internet. What I found was amazing. Beleive it or not there are different part numbers for ALL of the following as each and every application is different from car to car year to year.
Oh yeah, and to further complicate things, there are original type shifter bodies/handles and then there were the early aftermarket and later aftermarket shifters by Hurst.
What to look for: 1) Shifter body 2) " " mounting bracket (there are TONS of configurations) 3) Shifter handle 4) Shift linkages (these are crucial they are supposed to have numbers on them). 5) Shift levers (also have numbers on them and there are several different ones out there). 6) Also be sure you have the correct Z-bar, linkages & pivot ball 7) " " clutch fork 8) " " " ball
I may be missing something from this list. However, the reason I mention all of these parts and finding the correct stuff is due to the fact that my car had ALL of the above parts that were NOT correct for my car/application. I am guessing that may cars over the years become butchered and people replace old worn parts with incorrect parts etc.
It is amazing that my car even worked at all prior to finding and replacing everything. The geometry of my entire set up from shifter to Z-bar was completely off and not even close to where is should have been.
Now I would have never known any of this if it wasn't for my buddy down here whom we now refer to as "Ye Ole Pontiac Wizzard" as he seems to know EVERYTHING about Pontiacs and has a collection of them too boot!
Best to Google Muncie, Hurst etc. You can find all the part numbers and everything you just have to do some serious searching on the net. You will be amazed at all the parts etc. The good news is most Hurst install kits are still available from places like JEGs as they do offer complete kits you just need to be sure if you have an original shifter body, after market etc. at they are different as well.
There is a lot more to this than what most people realize I beleive. I think people just engineer parts on their own making their own shifter linkages etc. Trust me, if you take the time and effort to round up the correct parts, your car will be mor e enjoyable to say the least. It's nice to have a correct setup and not have the shifter lock up, scrape, grind, crunch, hit the console and the list goes on.
As I've said before now that I have mine correctly installed with ALL the correct parts, it is truly like driving a brand new car. The darn thing almost shifts itself. I learned all of this from a few folks on this site who helped me round up the parts and my buddy down here who helped me install everything...
Thanks for the info...upon further investigation since I pulled the motor/tranny it is a Borg Warner transmission coded 1034 063 903, dated 7/16/74. Looking a lot closer may see where the problem may be in the way the floor pans were installed and the shift linkage. Previous owner cut the hole smaller set the pans in and then welded. Left the overlaping old metal and that was causing the linkage to come into contact. Looks pretty good from the inside but underneath not too pretty. Will be a fixing more things than the 4sp set-up. I will research the parts like you mentioned to make sure all is correct. Any opinions on the Borg Warner...doing some reading and some say they are comparable to the Muncie?
