Replacing A/T shifter with a manual knob

This article will show you how to replace your stock automatic transmission shift knob with a manual shift knob and boot.

(moderators: the picture upload feature is not working, I hope using photobucket it ok)

The first thing you need to do is remove your center console. There are 6 screws total. Two near the A/C controls, 2 underneath the cup holder/ashtray, and 2 below the center compartment near the seats.

Once the console it off, pull your shifter into LOW gear, and remove the screw from behind the shift knob.

Now, once this screw is removed, you can pull the front part of the shift knob off, exposing the inside, which consists of a white box ( overdrive switch) and the wire from it leading down to the shifter base.

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Follow the overdrive wire all the way down to where it ends, which is at a harness in the area under by the shifter base. You need to cut this wire becuase the switch is very difficult/impossible to remove from the shifter knob, and it will need to be relocated anyways. Cut the wire about 1-2 inches away from the harness.

Now you need to take the stock shifter out. However, there is still one more thing holding it down. There is a ziptie (at least there was on mine) holding the overdrive wire to the shift lever. Cut this zip tie, and from there, you should be able to remove the stock shifter by gently pulling it up.

Now, the plastic trim peice that has the P R N D 2 L written on it is still in place. Around the corners, there are four screws hold the two peices of plastic in place that make up the trim peice. Take these screws out and remove these trim peices, as they are no longer needed. (Important: save the 4 screws that held the trim in place, you can use them later to screw in the shift boot to your console.)

The gutted weapontry...

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Now comes the manual shifter materials.

You need a stock 2g (or 1g if doing this on a 1g, obviously) shift boot, and a manual shift lever. I used my brothers stock shift lever from his manual when he put in a short shifter.

Take the manual shift lever, and get a hacksaw. Basically, you only need the top part of the manual shifter ( the part with the threads) so cut it to look something like this...

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Now, the stock manual lever I used happened to be hollow, and I assume all others are too...

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This peice cannot be hollow, so you need to get some JB weld, and fill it completely up, so it looks like this...

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Now, take a walk back over to the car, and look at that auto shifter assembly. It should basically be a pole sticking up, with a cable that moves up and down, and on that should be a peice of plastic. This cable is what was pushed down when you pushed the button on top of the old shifter.
Unscrew the plastic peice on the end of the cable and expose the threads. In the end, our goal is to get that top of the manual shifter peice to screw onto that cable.

So, time for a trip to the hardware store. You need to buy a tap. A tap is basically something that allows you to cut your own threads into something so you can screw it onto something else. We are going to use the tape to cut threads in the underside of the manual shifter peice we cut, so that the bottom will screw onto the cable in the car, while the top will fit a shift knob. The tap you need to get is a 4mm with a .70 mm pitch. While your at the hardware store, you might as well pick up a tool to turn the tape if you don't have one already.

Here is the tap I bought at ACE hardware

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Before you use the tap, you need to drill a "pilot" hole in the bottom of the manual shifter peice. Use a 34 drill bit. Try to get the hole as close to the center as possible, but it doesn't have to be perfect. Drill about a 1 inch hole into the peice. Then, take your tap, and begin cutting the threads in the hole you drilled by slowly twisting the tap into the hole by hand. Once this is done, the peice should look something like this

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Now, what you have just made it basically an adaptor to make a manual knob fit onto the a/t shift lock cable.. So now, instead of pushing the button on top of the shifter, you push the whole shift knob down to release the lock. Now, screw your adapotor into the cable, and check to see it fits right. You may need to cut you manual shifter peice little by little until it fits right. One problem I had was I cut it too long and when i pushed the cable down when the adaptor was on, the peice his the shift lever, and would not go down all the way, and thus not unlock. So keeping sawing away little by little until it's at a place in which you can depress the cable with the adaptor on, and the shifter will go into all gears easily.

You can screw on your shift knob now, which will look like this...

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If you haven't noticed, the shifter is very wobbly, becuase the cable is not secured in any way. Back to the hardware store... I used some tubing, and slid snugly over the cable, so that the cable would not hit the sides of the lever bar. So now it will not wobble. Here is a picture of the tubing inside of the lever bar.

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Now, you can put your shift knob on. I would recommend using a lighter shift knob, heavy ones tend to push the cable down easily, and I would defenitly not want to accidentally shift into park or reverse on the highway. I recommend the stock 2g shift knob, but any shift knob will be okay to use.

Now to the shift boot. It should mount into place underneath your center console, becuase the mounting spots were still there on the auto consols. I used the four screws that held the auto shifter trim in place to mount the boot.

Now replace your center console and the screws.

I have yet to relocated the O/D switch, but I will post how to relocate it once I do. Don't worry though, even with the over drive wires snipped and taped, the car still runs, with overdrive on.

Then, I just used zipties to hold the boot up in place.

The final product

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Here is a link to a video of mine in my car
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Arq0MRIIguI

Overall I liked this much better than the stock shifter, its much more comfortable, and you can customize it with any knob you want.

If you have any questions about anything just send me a PM. Hope this was helpful.

 

[mini zilo]

This will show you how to make an "adaptor" to make manual shift knobs fit on DSM automatic shifters...

First, you will need to take your center console off.

Once it is off, remove the 4 screws around the automatic shifter. Now on the actual stock shifter there is a screw. Once this is taken out, the inside of the shifter can be seen... You should see a wire going to a white box (overdrive switch). Remove the 2 screws on the inside of the shifter. Now, the shifter should be loose, but you cant pull it off yet, becuase the overdrive switch wire is holding it. There is a ziptie (at least there was on mine) holding the wire to the shifter "base". Cut the ziptie, and also cut the overdrive wire about 1-2 inches away from the harness it is connected to under the center console area. Once that is cut, you can take the stock display light, which is what lights up P R N D 2 L at night. The light can be taken out by turning it 1/4 turn.

Now the shifter should be able to be pulled out. Once you have the shifter removed, take the plastic peices that were under it out, you dont need them anymore. (important: save the 4 screws that held the plastic peice on place, you can use these to hold your shift boot in place.)

Now, looking at where your shift lever is, you should see basically a bar, going up to a cable with a peice of plastic on the end, that moves up and down. This was what was pushed down when you push the shift lock button down to shift from park. Remove the plastic peice by un-screwing it.

Now, here's where the manual materials come in:

You need a stock 2g shift boot, and a manual shifter. I used my brothers stock shifter, becuase he got a short shifter.

The only reason you need this shifter is it basically cut the top part off and use the threads for a shift knob. Once you get a manual shifter, cut the top part of it off.


Now, the shifter I used was hollow, so I used JB weld to fill it so it is solid.

Once that has dried, you need to get a tap, which is something that is used to cut threads so you can screw it into something. I went to ACE hardware and found that the thread on the end of the cable in the automatics is a 4mm .70mm pitch tap. So you need that.

Now comes drilling. You need to drill a hole in the bottom of the manual shifter thread peice you cut. Try to get it as close to dead center as possible, althought it doesn't have to be PERFECT. I used a number 34 drill bit to drill a hole in the bottom (about 1 inch in length), and then you go back in the hole with the tap to cut the threads. Make sure you also pick up a tool to use the tap with if you dont already have one.

At this point, the top part of the manual shifter should look like this.


Now, you have bascially just made an adaptor to make a manual shift knob fit onto the automatic button cable. You will need to tweek the "adaptor" you have made little by little. Once problem I ran into was that I was generous when cutting the top of the manual shifter, and there ended up being so much that the cable couldn't be pushed down and I couldn't shift from park. So keep sawing away little by little until you reach the point where you manual thread is the perfect length. Once you find that length, screw it on to the automatic cable, and see how it fits.


Now, by now, you may or may not have noticed that the automatic cable is really wobbly. This means that when you put your manual adaptor and shift knob on... it will have...in turbo terms, a lot of side to side play. I personally don't like a wobbly shift knob, so it's back to the hardware store. You need to get some tubing, or hose that is small enough to fit in the lever. See the picture below so see how I layerd the tubing.


Now, once you have the tubing in right and there is no side to side play, and its not wobbly, you can put your manual adaptor back on, and tighten it up. Once it is on, check all your shifts. Make sure it will go into LOW without the adaptor hitting the shift lever rod.

As for overdrive, I have not completed my relocation yet, but once I do, I will post the how-to on how to relocate the switch.

Now, grab that shift boot you got. Find those four screws that held you stock auto plastic peices in. Basically, all I did was drill a little of a pilot hole in the 4 slots under the console, and then used a screwdriver to put the screws back in. Now the boot may not be really tight since these screws weren't meant for this, but this was my temporary solution.

Now, put that center console back on. Right about now, your thinking about what kind of shift knob your gunna put on that bad boy... Well, I used a RAZO 340 gram....MISTAKE... I recommend using the lightest shift knob you can. A heavy shift knob will cause the automatic cable to be pushed down very easily. You CAN use a heavy knob, but always be sure that you knob locks in place and pops back up, so you don't accidentally pop it into reverse while driving. I recommend a stock 2g shift knob, but use the knob of your choice!

Now, just screw on your shift knob, and check your shifts again. Push the whole shift knob down, and this should unlock your shift lock, and make sure you can go into all gears normally.


(MODS: the button to attach pictures is not working, so I had to use a hosting site[photobucket])