Ratchet shifter (..duh)
Drill
Drill Bits
Hack saw
shift boot (optional)
washers
dremel (not necessary, but it helps)
Misc. American wrench sizes
center punch
Alright well go and buy your ratchet shifter. I went to Advance auto parts and bought the Pro-matic 2 that hurst makes. Pretty decent if you ask me. It comes with the cable, mounting hardware, and various brackets for different transmissions.
So now go out into your car and take out your stock shifter. Just remove the center console, pop out the little shift cable clip that holds the stock cable, and remove the cotter pin. You also need to remove the 2 other cables for the ignition key and brake pedal, you will figure it out. Take out the 4 bolts and unplug the little harness. Now, place your ratchet shifter on the floor. Now place your center console over it and get it lined up in a way that wont hit the console.
Make marks with a sharpie on the floor where the holes on the new shifter line up.
Go grab a center punch. Use the center punch where you made all of your marks with the marker. Now to grab a 1/8 bit, or maybe something a little smaller and drill the 4 holes out.
Now this is where your install will vary from mine. I just used whatever sheet metal screws I had laying around my house. You can use the ones that come with the shifter, or your own. Therefore, I cannot tell you what size to fully drill the holes out to, because it depends on the kind of sheet metal screw you use. Once all of the holes are drilled to the proper sizes, use some washers to get the shifter to stay level on the floor. After you do that, put your sheet metal screws in the holes you drilled, and then drive them down with your drill with a phillips bit.
Here you can see my screws and washers:
Alright, now grab the cable that came with your shifter. Install it onto the shifter (should be very obvious). Put the cotter pin on the shifter to hold the cable on. Now, route the cable into the engine bay via the stock cable firewall hole.
Now it is time to go into the engine bay. Locate the MANUAL CONTROL LEVER. It is the piece that your shift cable attaches to. It is the piece that actually selects the gear on the transmission. You need to remove this and modify it. Use a 14mm socket and ratchet to loosen the nut, and remove the lock washer and washer. Then, pop off the lever.
You need to cut off (with a hacksaw) the part that the stock cable attached too. Then you need to drill your own hole in the lever. The size of this hole depends on your shifter cable pivot. Mine was 5/32"
The shifter cable pivot lets the cable move in and out, while the manual lever moves side to side. Without the pivot, the cable would bend. Once you drill your new hole in the lever, re install it on the transmission. Now thread the pivot onto the cable, and then put the other end of the pivot into the hole you just made on the manual control lever. Insert a cotter pin.
Now, you need to make a bracket to hold your transmission cable to the transmission. I am leaving this up to you, I custom made mine and it would be very hard to explain. You cannot use the stock one because the "hole" in it is too big.
If all goes well after that, you should be good. Test out the shifter.
This is how my particular shifter works:
side note: when attaching the shift cable, both the transmission and shifter should be in the neutral position to ensure that the gears on the shifter match with the gears on the transmission.
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I understand that this all if very hard to understand without pictures to go along with it. I will take some pics this week of the shift cable, the pivot, and of the modification you must do to the manual control lever.
