Double metal panels stacked on top of each other, not easy to do, and not something I WANT to do

I'm thinking they may have done this on purpose to keep the average Joe from replacing the shifter in their driveway, kinda like what myself and a lot of us are doing.

Oh, and I already have the Barton bracket installed

 

Well, I never got the shifter bracket off, but I DID get the new shifter in !

I still have to wrestle with the rubber boot to get it back on, and then put the trim and **** back on, but it's installed, all the bolts are tight, and the car drives, gets into reverse and first OK. The rest of the gears will be tested a little later on

 

The problem (bottom-right bolt):




My solution, bending up the "corner" for access:




I also bent up the top-right "corner" so that the Barton shifter's larger/thicker base would fit:






The rubber boot fit back on just fine:




Insulation back on:




All back together, eBay chrome spacer and EPCO shift **** re-used:

 

Congrats on your install. I guess you didnt want to get under the car and you meant it! lol.

 

I was forced to do this.
I had the front of the car on ramps, the right rear axle tube on a jack stand, the right front frame on a jack stand, my head was directly under the bracket.

I was able to loosen one of the nuts with the required 10mm deep socket.
The other nut was smaller, the 10mm socket was spinning freely on the nut, a slightly smaller 7/16" socket was grabbing but only a little, and I didn't have smaller sockets.

So I tightened the other nut back up, called Barton, and the guy mentioned the possibility of bending the metal ... so I did.

And now I'm posting this in a few places in case others don't want to get under the car, they can see what would need to be done

 

Takes a little while to get used to the new feel of the shift gates but it's very nice once you get used to it. Much faster shifts and no missing 3rd. Great job.

 

Thanks Steve ... I'm actually amazed that I'm now looking forward to shifting whereas before it was something I did cuz it had to be done

 

Great feeling isn't it? It's like the piece of the puzzle that had been missing for some reason.

 

Lol, yeah pretty much.

I was just going through some posts on one of my Facebook group pages, scrolling down I saw my post from yesterday about the new Barton install and it made me wanna go drive the car again!

 

Thanks Gabe for the pics. I will have do this mod in a day or two. I also don't know I had to go underneath the car and now I can see why.

 

Looks like you were able to get it on eventually - one of the reasons why I waited for the 2 post barton to come out before I installed the Tri-Ax I had waiting around. Took a whole day and friend's help but it was like a whole new car. Enjoy the barton shifter!

 

I wish the Barton shifter had worked for me. It was so hard to find 1st & 2nd gear gates. I lived with it for a few weeks but it never got better. Practically zero tolerance between 1 & 3 and 2nd & 4th. Almost caused me to wreck once (wouldnt go into gear when making a turn) so I knew it had to go back to AM.

 

Why didnt you get an MGW?

 

I did.

The install was a breeze. It's been almost two weeks and I really like how this thing feels. I love how detailed the install video was. The guys over at MGW really did go through a lot to build a perfect shifter.

 

What was the lead time on when you ordered it to when you received it? I am thinking about picking one up soon.

 

First thought in my mind also was to cut it.

Great work OP! Luv that new look.