[s-cars] Weighting the short shifter

[TMULLANE at snet.net]

S'ers,

It started with a few small improvements, but I seem 
to have lost my footing on the slippery slope again.  
My car is apart waiting for some fancier FMIC parts, 
a Stromung cat bypass pipe, euro tail lights, Paulie 
horns (arrived yesterday!), and the Europrice short 
shift kit (for testing if the car ever moves again).  
Marc Swanson also donated his old stock rear sway bar 
to the cause, but that will wait for my next mental 
lapse for installation (no brackets yet).

A few folks have suggested that I weight the shaft on 
the shift rod for better shift feel.  Paul K donated 
some buckshot for the ballast, and we filled it the 
other night.  I took it home to melt it in.  When I 
hit the outside of the shaft with the torch (MAP gas 
from Home Debt is enough) the buckshot melted and 
settled.

So now there was room for more.  Hmmm.  If a little 
buckshot is good, more is always better.  But where 
to get it?  Necessecity being the mother of 
invention, I scrounged some wheel weights, hacked 
them up with a pair of side cutters, and "reloaded".  
It worked great.

It will be a week or so before I can drive the car 
again, but the shifter is impressively heavy.  As an 
additional FYI, when I went to reinstall, I found the 
boot in the floorboard damaged.  Dealer new: $75.  
Slippery slope indeed.

Anyway, HTH someone interested in better shift feel 
and also recycling.

Tom