So, installation was almost complete. We were just tightening down the bolts and wrapping it up in less than an hour. Then my buddy whom I bought the shifter from, over tightens the front/left bolt and breaks off the head inside its hole. My good friend that was assisting during this ordeal, who is a fantastic mechanic, says it's no big deal. We just need to run and grab his drill, an extractor and a new bolt. Well, the extraction was a complete fail. I am now looking at having to have my transmission dropped and having it extracted and retapped professionally. Well, I call my buddy who sold me the shifter and was subsequently responsible and who bowed out during this crisis. I tell him that we need to figure something out. I dang sure wasn't gonna foot the bill for this mistake that was due to a rushed job. He panics for a minute and then his brain finally catches up to him and he remembers that he is an electrician by trade. He goes and grabs a tapping set from Home Depot (this takes about an hour) and finally shows up at 9:15 to fix this mess. It took him ten minutes to retap it and drop a new bolt. 4 and a half hours and all of my chewed off finger nails later, the shifter is installed. It runs great and shifts like a champ.

 

How is it under very fast ,high rpm shifts?,if you got that far?

 

After that whole fiasco last night, I was just exhausted and didn't have the energy for a truly spirited drive. But I can tell you that it does grab gears a lot better. Hopefully I'll be able to take her out for a nice, hard ride sometime today or tomorrow.

 

Were you paying him to do the job? If not, that's a bit harsh!

Glad you got it sorted. I have a Hurst shifter on my '05 and it's great

 

I paid him for the part and asked him to slow down because a mistake was bound to happen. He dismissed my concerns and barked at me that he knew what he was doing, that he'd seen it done a lot of times and installed his without a problem. He was saying this as he twisted off the head of the bolt. It was a mistake, I understand that and I may have been a little on the harsh side. But, in the heat of the moment I was doing my best not to panic and, more importantly, not to be sick. But, he was a standup guy who came out and fixed the problem. Safe to say that there were no hard feelings.

 

This is why I do it myself. I'm the only one to blame and I do take my sweet time.

 

Normally I would agree with you but it was coming out of one car and into another. The previous owner was in a terrible rush because he wanted to get his car in to trade it for a truck.