B&M shifters & the weekend from Hell

[Jerry Bransford]

Heh, what a weekend. To cut to the chase, my TJ is belly-up and unshiftable and it's surprising how a small part of the install can screw things up.

I won't go into the details (most of you might laugh) but after the first part went so beautifully with the shifter and getting it nicely mounted and getting the cable down to the tranny, it went to hell after that. It involved not being able to get the OE shift lever off the transmission and it went downhill from there... complete with shifter binding and the sick feeling I knew I wouldn't be driving it Monday or even soon for that matter.

I can only advise anyone with the urge to install a nice looking B&M auto shifter into a Wrangler and the transmission is already installed, DON'T.

[Rockjeep]

Can you say art carr. I've had several b&m shifters and every time I swear its the last time. When I do the motor swap in the scrambler I'm putting in a art carr shifter.

[Jerry Bransford]

I looked at Art Carr and liked it but got talked out of it here because it's a ratcheting style shifter. The B&M I am in the middle of installing is their non-ratcheting Sport shifter. This will definitely be my last B&M though. One thing I definitely hate about this particular B&M is the way the shifter cable has to be routed. It comes with a 5' cable and the stupid way it has to be routed so it pushes/pulls in the right direction, 5' isn't quite enough so I had to go to their next length up, 8'. It's too late to go back to the OE shifter without getting a new console (the old one got cut up) and shifter mounting plate since I had to modify it somewhat to weld the new shift lever mechanism to it.

Edit: If anyone has an old gray console from a '97 or newer TJ & auto shifter plate that screws onto the transmission hump in the floor, I might just go back to the old shifter. Let me know how much.

[Rockjeep]

Art carrs shifters are gate shifters. Thats why I'm going to use one. Got tired of the ratcheting b&m quick silver we had in the camero. Someone steered you wrong.

[Jerry Bransford]

Good to know, thanks. I might have misunderstood the advice on the Art Carr shifter, they might have said ratcheting. I know I probably would have been done by now if I had gone with that instead of the B&M.

[TObject]

Sorry to hear about the problems, Jerry. I had a weekend of everything breaking on me.

I bought mom a new computer over the Internet. The computer is defective, the Windows never finishes installing – ether freezes, or shows blue screen of death. I had to spend long time on the phone with technical support, then all the fun obtaining return authorizations, and explaining over and over and over again to different people what is wrong with the computer.

Then my brother's computer broke – power supply. Since the power supply came as a package with the case and we didn't want the same power supply again, we had to remove everything from the case, go return the case to the store, buy a new case, and put everything back together.

The check engine light on my mom's car went on – cylinder 2 misfire detected. I guess, I am going to start by changing out the plugs and wires; but I am afraid that won't be the end of it.

I did a custom graphics job for somebody, and it came back, I accidentally transposed two letters – the result of rushing things, now I need to reprint the whole batch at my expense.

What a weekend, indeed.

[Jerry Bransford]

The stars and the moon were apparently misaligned against us Sergey.

[Jeff Weston]

Jerry,

Was there something wrong with the stock shifter? Why the change?

My beef with the Art Carr shifter, unless you have a reverse valve body modified tranny, is that it is no quick task to work your way all the way through the gates to quickly go between reverse and first. It gets a bit old working the thing back and forth if you're trying to do the dreaded 100-point turn. This is based solely on the Art Carr that my dad has behind a 700-R4.

Good luck!

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Jeff Weston

Jerry,

Was there something wrong with the stock shifter? Why the change?

Not a thing. To be truthful, I just hated having it look like my grandmother's shifter after all that work to do the 5-speed to auto conversion earlier this year. Plus I always liked the look of Hurst and B&M shifters. I had no idea it'd be such a major job, I would have never given it a second thought if I had. Plus the wife asked what I wanted for my birthday in that price range so it was an easy purchase for her

[Lawrence]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

Plus the wife asked what I wanted for my birthday in that price range so it was an easy purchase for her

That'll teach you. You should have asked for more ballroom dancing lessons instead, a lot easier to handle.
PS: Call Jeeps Only in Sylmar, they might have a cheap console. Last time I was there, they had a bunch of TJs.

[Rockjeep]

You could have also used a locar shiftet. Very nice.

[DanB98TJ]

I had a B&M shifter (aka the "Bowel Movement") in my Ranchero, and it was the biggest POS I've seen. I couldn't keep the cable from stretching and throwing everything out of adjustment. From now on, it's stock or Lokar (but I don't know how that would work in a Jeep).

Glad Murphy isn't just screwing with me...somebody wiped out the left side of my new car a few days ago, and didn't bother sticking around. $3500 in damage on a car with less than 3000 miles.

[Cutch]

Originally Posted by Jerry Bransford

I looked at Art Carr and liked it but got talked out of it

Gee....I tried to talk you into taking mine...guess I was too far away to twist your arm enough

I ended up with a Lokar...it looked good....it was more of a height thing for the shifter anyways...sold that Jeep.

If I was to do it over again I would have just had the manual tranny rebuilt rather than swapping to an auto...probably would still have that Jeep then....but now I got a TJ and will keep it within reason in making changes to it.....my YJ was a 88 with a 92 motor and t case, a 94 tranny, a 81 FSJ front axle, a 88 FSJ rear axle, TJ seats and a bunch of other bastardized Jeep stuff on it....when ordering anything for it I really had to think what year it was

[Jerry Bransford]

I ordered a longer cable so it won't bind, and they told me it will be a heavier duty cable as well. I'll see if I can't get it working Sunday, it hasn't beaten me yet. :

[Paradiddle]

Jerry - did you swap it out most for looks or was there somthing wrong with your stock shifter?

[Jerry Bransford]

As was said above Jeff, it was primarily for looks... I put too much energy into the tranny conversion for it to look like it was a factory install. Dumb reason, I know... that and I've always loved the look of B&M's and Hurst's shifters since I was about 15 and I'm not getting any younger.

[VancoPBS]

OK Jerry be honest, how many jobs on your rig have you done 100% solo and not ****ed up? We're friends here...

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by VancoPBS

OK Jerry be honest, how many jobs on your rig have you done 100% solo and not ****ed up? We're friends here...

Only the ones I've mentioned here... I don't mention the majority of the jobs that have gone fine Van.

[Tim]

pics?

[Jerry Bransford]

Originally Posted by Tim

pics?

The longer 8' shift cable seems to have fixed the hard shifting and it's now working after getting the correct shift lever (the little one on the tranny) installed. The only problem remaining is the 8' replacement cable arrived bent pretty bad at both ends under the sheath where it uses steel rod & I couldn't get them perfectly straight. So it shifts 'ok' now after straightening them as much as I could but the bends are hidden under the sheath so I couldn't get them perfectly straight. I imagine once I get the replacement cable installed it should shift more smoothly.

Anyway, it was a productive weekend. I even got the old temperature sender bung out of the pan and welded up and a new bung welded in so both (the other is on the cooler output line) temperature senders now work. The old bung location put the temp sender too close to the front driveshaft.

Here's how it turned out, it was a bit of a pain getting it to fit & work with the OE console. Would I do it again? Nope.

[mrblaine]

Jerry, wouldn't this have accomplished the same thing with much less effort?

http://www.rubiconownersforum.com/ph...p?f=23&t=60638

[DanB98TJ]

Good thing you don't live in Arizona...you'd learn to hate that aluminum T-handle really fast.