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RAV-GT4
Forums Junkie

Toymods member
I supported Toymods

Location:
Rydalmere, NSW
Registered:
May 2002

Re: Andrew's 1999 Turbo RAV4 project...	Tue, 20 May 2003 17:27

Today it was time to install the quickshifter that recently arrived from the US. This was by far the trickiest install I've had a hand in doing so far. It's fairly obvious that this shifter was designed for JDM and/or USDM RAV4's, as the diagram provided in the box clearly displays a gearstick assembly completely unlike mine, probably metal, hence why most of the parts for the job weren't used. The design of the assembly or picture breakdown LOOKS the same as mine, but my gearstick assembly is made of a type of plastic instead, and no demountable top-section in which to put spacers for the bottom section of the shift to have adequate clearance. Anyway, to better explain, I took detailed photos of the install. The original gearstick assembly, minus the removable part of the lower console - the wires you see coming from this section are for the neon kit under the car, and the LED for the activation of the neon's. With the console removed, everything was fairly easy to get to. After removing the lower console completely (5 screws), the gearstick housing assembly is visible. These may differ from country to country. My gear housing and mechanisms are a type of hardened plastic, whereas others could be made of metal, and disassemble into more parts than mine. Dismantling the assembly was a tad trickier than first thought. My sister's husband (Rob) helped me out with most of this installation, and here his help was invaluable. It turns out that instead of nuts held on by threaded bolts (as depicted in the instructions), the parts that hold the top of the shifter in place have a bolt with a pressure-washer (slots cut out of the washer itself, the hole designed to be smaller than the bolt that it fits on so when it gets pushed on, it sits on it with adequate pressure holding it in). We had to find a way of removing these washers without destroying them, and two small, flat-bladed screwdrivers and a lot of careful prying did the trick. We decided that since we couldn't effectively get these two bolts holding the top part of the shifter in, out of the assembly while still in the car, we removed the 4 x 12mm hex-headed bolts that hold the assembly to the transmission tunnel. First remove the U-shaped wedges (brass) that hold in the cables for the shifter. After this, gently remove the cables and slide the assembly out. The only way we could remove these bolts enough to get the top portion of the assembly out, was to do it by force. Being a plastic substance, a vice doesn't usually agree with the assembly, so we had to position the assembly in such a way that we were trying to remove these rather stubborn bolts, but not damaging them. The only way to do it was the same way as before - with the two screwdrivers and a bit of prying. Eventually we got this part sorted, and used a hammer and a centre-punch to get the bolts out of the assembly. The green arrows represent the direction in which the bolts had to be removed in order to free the top section, marked in red. Here are the differences between the two shifters. As you can see, the pivot point (or the thing that looks like a silver ball on the gearstick) is positioned higher than the stock stick. The white thing to the right of the pic is the housing for the pivot, which turned out to be too small for the assembly I had. The holes were out of alignment by at least 7mm. To overcome this, we decided to use the stock pivot housing with the quickshifter. Because the mounting spacers that were provided (aluminium) were no good to me, and there was nowhere I could use them, the tail end of the shifter, or the bottom point that is a long tapered area below the pivot, was going to hit the transmission tunnel. We had to improvise somewhere, and the mounting points on all 4 bolts looked to be a good place to do it. We used 3/8" nuts that were 8mm high, and placed the assembly on top of these. The nuts installed under the gearstick assembly. Continued next post.... [Report message to a moderator]

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