guitarman376

Just got a good deal on a Hurst shifter for the toploader I am prepping to swap into the stang. As far as rebuilding goes, does anyone have any hints/tips/tricks/advice? I would love to know where you guys purchased the rebuild kit from as well. I have rebuilt a few factory style shifters, which are pretty dang simple, and I'm confident I can do the Hurst as well. Would love to save myself some $ and NOT send it back to Hurst to rebuild.

guitarman376

Other than fleebay it seems like brewers performance has a complete kit also. I am gonna see which is cheaper and just order it now. Maybe I will remember to do a tuturiol (hurst would love that)

Starfury

I rebuilt mine when I got it, years ago. It had been sitting out in a field and was full of sand, but after some serious time scrubbing it out in a degreaser tub, it works fantastic.

It's not really rocket science. Take it apart as much as you can, clean everything, grease it up, and reassemble. I don't think you'll have any real issues.

guitarman376

So I got my shifter apart and I am soaking all the parts to clean everything. From the looks of things, I would like to replace the main shaft pin and the shims. The pins are easy to find, however the shims below are the closest I can find to what I have.

http://brewersperformance.com/proddetail.asp?prod=H0003

They are definitely different than the ones I removed. Below are the ones I removed:


Where can I find replacements? I am kind of decided on wanting to replace the shims and the main pin, since it seems they are the main wear items in the shifter. The pin is clearly worn, and I suspect new shims would be the way to go too.

Starfury

Hmmm...not sure. Have you tried contacting Hurst directly?

guitarman376

I think I am going to do exactly that and see if they will sell me replacement shims. No where sells them it seems, and obviously Hurst still makes them...frustrating. In the meantime I need to finish reassembling the springs into the lever...the stiff one is a PITA!

guitarman376

Welp looks like they are out of office until the 6th, so I emailed them. Hopefully they are understanding and will sell me those shims at a reasonable price.

Starfury

Considering the price of a new Hurst, "reasonable" is a pretty loose term.

If you figure out a good way to mount the Hurst shift boot into your car, let me know. I haven't quite finaggled that out yet.

guitarman376

@Starfury I haven't got to that stage in the process yet. Are you referring to the lower or upper boot? I believe they both mount with the same 4 bolts that mount on the tunnel?
I haven't even begun teardown of the fmx yet as I am waiting to piece together everything I need. I am very particular about how I start projects and really try to have everything on hand when I start.

Starfury

The upper boot. The factory shift boot with the round hole doesn't play well with the rectangular Hurst shift rod (I tried), but the Hurst shift boot/bezel combo is huge and tacky and is going to require some additional holes in the tunnel. I'd much prefer to keep a look more in tune with the rest of the car.

I picked up a 65-66 upper shift boot bezel, which looks great and matches the interior, but I can't cut down the rectangular Hurst boot to fit in the square bezel. Irritating...