Reply to "Gear shifting problems"

There is one part of the Pantera shift lever system that hasn't been mentioned yet: the shift lever bushings. When I was restoring Zonkey I installed one of Quella's newly released shift rods with the stainless shaft section and a solid ball in socket support. Things worked fine until I installed the gate (fingers had been removed long before. I couldn't adjust it so that I could get both R and 5th. Before, with a Hall teflon support, it had worked fine. Also, I'd replaced all the linkage U-Joints with newer and "tighter" ones.

I called Wilkinson and he said that the bronze bushings and shaft that support the shift lever were probably the problem:
http://www.panterasbywilkinson.../catalog/ill10a.html
parts 18 and 19. I think he sold them to me as a kit. That solved the problem. Before I fixed it there was probably 1/4" of free play at the top of the shift lever (the detent had been removed). My conclusion was that the Quella shaft had added just enough extra free play to cause the problem and removing all free play at the lever fixed it. I had a bit over 100K miles on the car then. Low milage cars should probably not have the problem.

This is probably not the problem here but is something everyone should be aware of.