Another one? How many of those are there...

 

The boys over there have been through this pretty thoroughly, most opinions are a little different than those expressed here:

Hot Rods american shifters - THE H.A.M.B.

 

I have a lokar 23" and it works great once it's adjusted. I got the 8 ball shifter ****..you push in the "8" to shift. You can still get them from any lokar dealer. Good choice

 

hi,
I bought a c4 shifter kit from american shifter...
This has to be the most difficult kit to install I have ever worked with. For starters, the instructions have tiny pictures, very hard to see the details. They need to triple the size of the pictures to see any details. They are also very dark, which does not help when you take a copy in the garage and try to reference it under the car with a shop light.
You would think it would be easy to install, a few bolts, right? wrong. They must have anodized the aluminum brackets AFTER they drilled and threaded the holes. What happens is that you cannot thread any of the screws - they stick.
I had to get out my tap set and retap every screw hole....... they should anodize FIRST, then drill and tap holes….
The brackets are thick, but they are not perfectly bent - so when you try to put on the side brackets, because the adjustment slots are so tight - you cannot get the bolts into the threaded hole unless you really twist and bend... it is very easy to misthread the bolts, be careful.
You have to install every bolt loose before final tightening otherwise the brackets won't align enough to let you get all the bolts in properly. The low profile allen head bolts are almost impossible to handle during install. They are anodized, so very slippery.
There are no written instructions about which bolts or piece of hardware to use where..- they give you ess..3/8 inch and 1/2 inch round head allen head bolts, but they can only fit in certain areas. the shortest length 4 bolts go into the top side mounts for the shifter, and on the right side where the neutral safety switch is mounted, the holes are blind, which means you can't chase the threads. Thread these right side bolts into the holes once or twice using the bolts before mounting on the car to clear out the holes.
Also – you are supposed to use a regular lock washer placed over the shortest 4 bolts before you attach the shifter to the mounts. The clearances are so tight that if you don’t – you will bottom out the bolts (especially on right side blind holes) before it gets tight on the frame and the shifter will be loose. The order is the smallest est. 3/8? inch bolt, and a lock washer, then attach the shifter to the mounting base. This leaves very little actual thread depth to make contact. It will feel firm because the lock washer will almost immediately contact the mount surface before you get a good thread contact. You have to keep going until the base is not loosely attached.
When installing the top part to the mounting plates, using the allen head bolts is a hassle because it is hard to get a wrench into tight spaces. I have a 3/8 drive socket set allen socket, but it is too long to use and also need a u-joint because the top mounts are NOT horizontal, they are angled about 30 degrees, which I think is a sloppy design flaw. Why not make the top mounting holes FLAT so you can easily thread the bolts? Plus it would be easier to manufacture the side mount brackets with a 90 degree bend for accuracy!
The grooved slots are very tight clearance, so it is almost impossible to wiggle a bolt through the slot and into the threaded holes. The round head allen bolt is only needed on the top left mounting side for shifter body movement clearance, otherwise you can use normal hex head bolts.. I used my own substitute whenever possible. This makes using a socket wrench for clearances a lot easier.
In addition, the nylock nuts must have also been anodized, so they were almost impossible to get on. I recommend threading all of them first on a bench before using them on the car. Trying to force it when you are upside down on your back with a shop light and sockets is futile. Also recommend you have a helper inside the car holding extra tools, shop light or bolts for when you drop something..
Attach the tail housing bracket very last because you need the extra clearance for fingers and tools to get access to the rear bolts to attach them. Otherwise it blocks access to the rear holes.
The right side mounting plate for the shifter was not attached , so I had to figure out how to attach it with the proper bushing and 2 regular nuts.
You have to assume you are installing this kit on a car already built! not on a bench.. so the youtube videos are useless. I got it all in and then the car would not start. So I took off the top shifter part only to find out that the neutral safety switch is not adjusted properly. yet again, there is no written help here....wtf
There are detent notches on the inside surface of the right mounting plate, so it seems the ridges engage the neutral safety switch. BUT if the right side bracket lines up perfectly with the left side bracket, it seems to me the safety switch would be OFF, which means the car will not start in PARK!! You will have to readjust it slightly offset in alignment from the left side to get the ridge to depress the neutral safety switch at the right time for P and N. I am still trying to figure this out! I may just hot wire it and forget it. I have to figure out how to adjust it on the car with loose bolts and a meter. Maybe I will use a hammer and screwdriver to tap the bracket a bit and pray it hits these ridges.
A few instructions or even a hash mark on the bracket for proper alignment would be a big help, we are talking mm of adjustment….
Now I have to go back and loosen the right side bolts to try and nudge the right side upright bracket slightly, somehow while also holding a multi-meter to the terminals to make sure the switch engages!!??
Btw, since I previously had a BM cable shifter, which was not very accurate and had a sloppy feel. You also need to replace the shifter arm from the bottom orientation to the top orientation, which is not clear in the instructions either.. The shifter shaft operates in a counter clockwise rotation going from park to drive.
In the video, they don’t point out the “activation” and “stop screw” location, so I have no idea where they are…. Maybe it refers to the attachment for the neutral safety switch to adjust for electrical contact? I have to look again to see if this is adjustable, but now it is back on the car.. so.. tight spaces to try and get a good look…
This has taken over 8 hrs and I expect another 2-4 for adjustments for what should be a 2 hr job.
Almost all of this could be avoided if they had professional instructions!!!! Larger pictures with ARROWS would do wonders. Simple things like mentioning you need to remove certain transmission bolts to mount these brackets would be a big help. Plus adding the correct TORQUE settings to the trans tailshaft bolts so I know they are installed back to spec.
Wish me luck!

 

Old post, but good info. I ended up buying a Lokar 23'' nostalgia shifter, That installed in less than a 1/2 hr. Not including modifying the shift rod. good luck with your build.