I just bought a nice 89' Z24 2WD 5Spd. pick-up. the transmission shifter boot (the one that clamps to the top of the transmission) is torn and leaking like a sieve. I got a new one from the dealer for about $8. My question is, how in hell do you change it? The small end of the boot is way too small to be slipping over either end of the shift lever, and I can see no way to take the top part os the shifter off, it looks like it's been molded together. I ask the "Professional Nissan mechanics" down at the dealed, but all I got was a blank stare (its a small town) and the factory shop manual gives you no hint. Has anyone out there ever changed one of these things without violence?
All I had to do was remove the shifter boot ( the one you can see in the vehicle),take off the shifter knob, pull off the old boot,and install the new one. The only PITA was trying to remove the boot that's inside the truck since all the bolts that hold it down are under the carpet. I ended up putting a little tear in my carpet.
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95 WD-21 DVD/TV system-otherwise stock kid hauler
95 D-21 KC XE 3" lift- built for rockcrawlin!
Thanks for the reply Tolleyy, but your shift lever must be a lot different than mine. I have already removed the seat and floor mat, mine's rubber and I didn't want to cut it up, and pulled out the interior boot, its mounting plate and rubber floor seal, removed the snap ring and removed the shift lever, with its torn boot, out of the truck. the upper part of my shift lever, where the shift knob screws on, is an expanded tube about 1.3" in diameter. it appeares to be molded in rubber to the lower part of the shift lever, which is about 0.6" in diameter where the boot clamps on with a tie-wrap, and there is a pivot ball machined onto the other end of the shift lever where it fits into the transmission with a snap ring. I don't know of any way of slipping a boot with a 0.5"dimeter hole over a 1.3"dimeter tube without tearing it, and I don't think it will slip over the 1" di. ball pivot on the other end any eaiser. I tried clamping the shift lever in a vice abd using a strap wrench on the expanded tube, hoping it might be threaded together, but things just twisted around abit in its rubber bonding. I considered using heat on the shifter shaft to see if I could soften the rubber bond enough to pull it apart, alowwing me to change the boot, but then I would be faced with the problem of how to glue the dammed thing back together. There's got to be a better way. Am I missing some trick here?
Ya, it's the right boot, looks just like the old one. All I've got to do is figure out the magic trick to change it. There's an old saying in the business..."There is no problem so involved that it can't be solved by brute strength and ignorance".
I FIGURED IT OUT! I DID IT! I WIN! I pored myself a pint of a nice handcrafted English Ale(yummy!), sat down with my new rubber boot, and we had a quite moment together. The more I fooled with it...it just didn't feel or look like rubber...too slick, too shiny. I remembered the trick we use to use to get the plastic protectors slipped our shiny new air tools. We boiled the covers in water for 10 min. Then, and only then, you could wrestle it over your new tool, and when it cooled, it fit tight. It was worth a try. If your going to ruin parts trying to learn somthing, start with the cheap parts, right? I clamped the shift lever in my vice and wiped down the top tube with WD-40(I had a feeling this was going to be like slipping a 15" tire over a Minuteman missile). I put the boot in a pan and covered it with hot water and boilded it for 10min. I put on my work gloves, grabbed the hot boot out of the boiling water, and started forcing it over the tube. It went about halfway down and stalled. I thought "you're going on or you die!" I grit my teeth, took a firm grip on both sides of the boots big end, and leaned on it...hard. ZIP! POP! IT WENT ON! It instanly popped back to its original shape like nothing had happened. Stuck the dammed thing back in the truck, no more oil leaks, no more hot oil smell. Life is pretty now.
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