Metal piece in between shifter and tranny?

[renxwar]

I took ownership of a '99 Cobra recently. On the drive home I had a ton of shifter issues, and once I got it home I realized the plastic bushing that the shifter goes into was broken and out. The part is on order from the dealership. I removed the shifter and cleaned up all the RTV off of it to prep it for when the part came in, and I noticed there was a goldish metal piece that gets sandwiched inbetween the shifter and mounting point on the tranny. Is this stock? I don't remember having one of these on my Terminator.

I had to put the shifter on to drive the Cobra off the ramps and without the metal piece the shifter feels a lot more solid, its not sliding out of the mount point and I'm not fishing for the gears again.. is this piece necessary? It seems like it dropped the shifter down maybe 1/8".

 

[01yellercobra]

I've never seen anything like that. I was going to say maybe someone made a copper gasket, but that's a little thick for a gasket. Sounds like you'd be better off leaving it out.

I remember they used to sell a "short shift kit" for VWs. It was basically a spacer that went under the shifter. I remember hearing people had all kinds of issues because it wouldn't let the gears engage completely. Maybe that's what they were going for.

 

[renxwar]

It definitely doesn't seem stock, since it was just RTV'd on there. It was a good fit and had good machining, though. The more I think about it the more I don't think there was anything on the Terminator shifter like that, either.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[01yellercobra]

I've had a T-45, 3650, and now a T-56. None of them had the piece you're talking about. Can you contact the previous owner?

 

[Un4GivN]

Never heard of such a thing. What part of NC are you in? Any pictures?

 

[renxwar]

Well, sounds like it gets trashed then. I got the car from a guy who got it from someone else.. the title wasn't even changed over yet, so the original owner is kind of phased out. Hopefully this is the worst goodie I find from the previous owner. I'm in Burlington, no pics but I can take some next week.. had to drive up to NJ for army stuff.