ok so i was trying to take my shifter plater off today, but i cant get my shift **** off, i removed the staple thing but it wont budge, is there a screw somewhere too, or am i just not pulling hard enough? please help me out, im goin to the junkyard this Sat. so if i find a new **** i wanna be able to put it on, thanx

 

Have trouble with this too. With the c-clip or staple out, just have to twist and pull, sometimes real hard, careful what you hit when it comes off.

 

take the push button out 1st. try tapping it with a rubber hammer also. and yes, becarful when using brute force, don't smash your hands off the dash or wheel or something. i actually cut my hand wide open on the sharp steel under the shift **** when i finally got mine off. i shoulda got stiches...

 

ok thanx guys, so once i do get it off, will it be a pain to get it back on? or will it just slip right back on? i mainly wanna take the shifter plate off and clean underneath and around it cuz the last owner was a smoker and u can deffinitly tell, it full of ashes and crap, so i just wanna be able to put it back on after i take it off, this wont be a problem will it?

 

shouldn't be a problem. just make sure you put the c ring back in the ****. you thought about going with an aftermarket ****? i'm not talking about the autozone or pepboyz special either. like a billet or B&M one.

 

If you have already pulled the staple out of the front of the ****, that is all that holds it on. There is no "C-clip" under the push button like there was on the earlier style round ****. You can either grab it with both hands and yank upwards on it real hard (mindfull of **** in face) or take a wrench that fits around the shift lever and tap it with a hammer or mallet till the **** comes off. When putting it back on, clean the inside of the shaft on the **** and lube it lightly with lithium grease. BTW, it won't twist off because there is a keyway in the **** that fits in a slot on the shift lever.

 

by c ring i ment the piece on the front side of the **** that holds it to the shifter itself, not the piece on the inside. just to clear that up...

 

Okay, no problem, The old round style ***** did have a c-ring inside the **** that you had to remove.

 

are you talkin early 3rd gens or earlier? i didn't know they had another inside. then again, i don't really know earlier then the 3rd gens anyways.

 

Early thirdgen round shift ****:
Pull the push-button out, straight up. Just pull until it comes out. Look inside and see a C-clip. Take it out using a c-clip tool or needle-nose pliers. Pull off the ****.

Late thirdgen square shift ****:
Pull out the U-clip from the backside of the ****. Pull off the ****, straight up. Pull until it comes off or you break your arm.

 

i had the early style round **** on my 86 camaro. i do remember taking out a long plastic piece, but there was no clip in there. maybe i got an oddball setup. i'm still (as far as i know) the only one to have half digital and half mechanical guages on my cluster.

 

That long plastic piece is in all of the automatic shift levers. That is what the button pushes down to unlock the Park/Lock control cable detent so you can take the gear out of park after the engine is cranked.

 

And there's a cam on the bottom of the long plastic piece. If you just yard it straight up you wil break it off. I have the square leather style, I had to first pry the button cover up with a flat screwdriver, and then there's an underbutton on a spring. Depress the underbutton and the long piece sticks up, turn that piece 90 degrees to release the cam, pull it out and the underbutton and the spring will then lift out. Then get a wrench like was mentioned and put it under the ****, tap that up till it slides off.

 

That is a new one to me. BTW, I have one of those ***** that you are talking about and just took it apart. That cam piece you refer to is only to hold the button and spring in the **** and act as an extension of the button to push the long plastic rod down. The ears on that piece also act as a stop for the button when they touch the top of the shift lever. It is not physically attached to the long plastic rod in any shape, form, or fashion. So yanking up on the **** will not break anything except maybe your jaw if you're not careful. This is not to say that you are wrong in what you are doing Charlie. I'm just saying it is unnecessary.

 

Yeah yer right about that, I thought that the staple thingy was going to be located at the base of the ****, as in right underneath it. When I didn't see it where I expected, I just started dismantleing the ****, thinking that maybe there was a c-clip inside like some had mentioned. I got the button cover off, the underbutton, the cam retainer and spring all out, and there was no clip. I tried yarding the **** off but it wouldn't budge, so I gave up and came back inside to reread the 50 posts on how to remove the shifter ****, Lol! I finally found something I missed the first time, one guy said to put the transmission in first gear for a better view, so I went out and did that and lo and behold, there was the staple..... but it was higher up than I thought it should be, and the leather had folded over it so it wasn't really visible. So I popped that out with a small screwdriver and it came right off. So I have not taken it off in one piece yet, so I will take your word for it that it that the whole unit pops off!

thanks for clarifying that, I think I read too many posts for my own good and got more information than I really needed, Lol! K.I.S.S, I spose....

Should make a sticky post about removing shift *****/ console tops, hehe...........