Milano/75 Short-Shifter Conversion!

[junglejustice]

OK, so, a fair degree of interest here - I'd say (and then when it comes time to write the checks, rigor mortis of the wallet-hand sets in...)

But, let's try it.

The kit includes conversion to the gear stick, with new bushes at the bottom of the modified stick and a modified rod to the back of the car. It does not include the re-bushed isostatic linkages at the rear of the car - for that Group 2 sells the "monkey-shifter kit" that is pretty damn sweet to freshen all of that up on a Milano/75.

Help me out here, but on a GTV6 (older-type), there is a single bush back there, right...? You Coupe guys are on your own for that part.

Unlike the custom billet-conversions that we have seen some guys do (like the Dutch boys on that one site), Alex's kit does not require any modifications to the interior or to the underside or to the rear of the car. It is not a new billet shifter-housing or anything. It is what it is and it works great! It simply bolts in place of the old parts.

The challenge is that this is all "exchange" and we would all have to either take our cars out of commission for a period of time to ship the parts over there since he does not have a bunch laying around (and this may be OK for some of us), or find a pile of exchange shifters and rods to bundle-up and send to Alex for conversion!

We should also arrange for them all to come back sand-blasted and powder-coated (or painted at a minimum) so that there is no cherry-picking!

Upon my last look, the rear re-bush-kits for the later model Milano/75-type shifters from Alex ran 90 Sterling (where's the ****ing Monopoly $&%@# sign...?) Pounds... and the forward part of the mods that we are talking about here ran £150 for the two parts (shifter and shift-rod...)

So, like I said, the rear re-bush is only on Milano/75s and you can buy the monkey-shifter kit from Group 2 (worked very well on Jes' 3.7 when we first tried it out), or buy Alex's re-bush (I love saying that ) kit for back there at 90 Sterling...

Shipping will add about 20% to the whole tab both ways.

(NOW let's see how many guys are in?) I'll go to work on Alex (based on the number of replies we get on this 2nd go-around) and possibly see if we can arrange a "licensing-fee" to produce them locally (in the interest of time and the cost of shipping...)

What do you guys think? (Talk among yourselves - I'll go see what they said next door on the GTV6/Alfetta forum...)

[AlfaAddict]

So thats £150 (shifter & shift rod) with an optional £90 (re-bush) kit for total of £240. Plus add an additional 20% to cover shipping = £288. So present conversion rate £288 = $566. I'll take 2. Who will be in charge of collecting pieces for shipment. And how much extra do you think sand-blasting and powder-coating would add?

[DonBeeson]

Ok, price sounds good, since you are located near seattle is that where the shipment will leave from? Maybe i'll have to find a milano in a wrecking yard and steal its parts then send them down there?

I guess ideally someone would be near Alex and head to a few wrecking sites, rip 'x' number of shifters out of 75's and then we'd only have to deal with shipping one way?

But your way will probably be easier. Whens this going down?

-----just saw the licensing fee part. That'd be ideal.

[AR4me]

JJ,
No bushing in the back on the GTV6. The shift rod from the front simply bolts to the selector "arm" that fits on the splines of the rod coming out of the transmission - super simple.

On Roxanne I rebuild the Milano iso-static linkage with the Monkey Shifter rebuild kit from Andy (Performatek), and with a fresh transmission the shifting is unbelievable. Adding short-throw would make this a dream! BTW, I think Colin has a new Monkey Shifter kit laying around that may be for sale.
Jes

[alfettish]

What does one need to remove from under the car to get to the shift mechanism (Isostatic on mine)?

[AR4me]

Depends on what you want to do. A pin holds the shift rod from the front to the isostatic mechanism in the back. You can tap the pin out with a hammer and a suitable "flat-head" punch. If you want to rebuild the isostatic mechanism you need to pull the exhaust undo the driveshaft at the clutch, undo the shift rod pin and pull the rod, and lower the front of the Dedion. Similar disassembly procedure to doing left and right transmission mounts. On a Milano/75 you can also undo the center cross-member and undo the center support for the driveshaft if you prefer less "bend" on the driveshaft when you lower the front of the Dedion - just a few more bolts.
Jes

[junglejustice]

So, I will work on two things;

1) A pile of exchange pieces - shifters and rods (assuming that the GTV6 and 75 rods are different? Are the shifters all the same?
2) Working with Alex on licensing for local production.

- Everybody still ready to do this, please send me an email to john@reginaceleste.com so that I can go to work on charging deposits (and let me know in the emails if you have exchange parts ready, or how many I need to collect for each of you...)

Alex? Where are you my good boy!? (Awfully quite here...)

[AlfaAddict]

Wow I'm excited! Like a kid in a candy store who just found a new delectable treat. This comes right on time because I was just looking into what bushings etc I would need to rebuild the shift mechanism on the Milano I just picked up. As well as my daily driver whose shifter was re-bushed when I got it around 30K but now has 92K and is starting to rattle when driving.

[SamW]

JJ,

Pre Iso GTV6 shifters are different from GTV6 Iso shifters, which are different from the Milano Shifters, I think DaveH figured this out when he was doing the shift bushings.

I would like to see some pictures of it.

[dbgrubbs]

Sam, you don't need no stinkin' pics, just commit!!!

[Walt]

On the left a "normal" shifter from a GTV6
On the right an "iso" shifter from a GTV6

The one of the 75 is still different from the two others.

[junglejustice]

In light of the three differing versions of shifters, as well as (Lord knows what) other variables we might face, it may benefit us to each pay a fee to Alex for detailed drawings and pictures and instructions on how to modify these, the relational dimensions and say the bushes and bolts as part of a DIY kit for something nominal like say 100 dollars each...

I suggest this only because I can see this turning in to a huge cluster without each owner's exact core as the donour part for each buyer's own conversion. That way we can all try and do it on our own cars and maybe somebody local will do it for those of us who do not have the basic welding resources to do it.

The savings in down-time and shipping costs alone would more than cover a hundred bucks, no....? Let's keep talking about this, we'll come up with something that works!

[alfettish]

I like the sound of that JJ.

[Gilles]

Hello JJ; your lattest idea makes sense to me, please write me down on a DYI kit (if Alex agrees to it) regards, Gilles

[junglejustice]

So, some movement here - See this:

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/show...061#post346061