Save Your Shifter Boot!

OK, so you are wearing holes in your nice leather shifter boot in your SRT-4. What? You have a stock shifter, and it's not a problem? Au contraire! Look at this picture here:

Believe it or not, my stock shifter caused this little hole. I just happened to have it all apart to replace my stock shifter with a Maddog 72% STS, and saw it. No doubt, left untreated, this hole would have gotten worse with the stock shifter. With the Maddog, it would have ripped in no time.

The "cross-gate" arm is what was rubbing on the boot. With the STS, this arm is raised, and will push against the boot even worse than the stock shifter. As a result, more wear will be produced.

Is there a solution? Is htere a cure? Is there any hope at all?? Why, of course there is :) How much will it cost? The answer is....

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Well, it should cost you a grand total of $0.00 during your next oil change. Yes, sir. This is the solution to your shifter and boot incompatibilities. It's arts & crafts time, kids!

OK, so onto it. First, cut the bottle roughly in half, like this:

Be sure to clean out the remaining oil at this time, or you will have a mess!

Next, cut the top out of it, so it will fit down over the top of the shifter:

Now that you have done this, it will slide over the top of the shifter assembly. Now, look to see where it needs to be trimmed to fit nicely. Hopefully you have mastered the art of scissors and razor knives better than I have! When you are done, you will have something that looks roughly like these following pics:

You will notice that one side curves down, and sticks out. This is to fit as a guard all the was around the cross-gate arm. When you install it, you will see and understand.

OK, now slide it down over the shifter. You may need to trim to get what was the bottom of the bottle to sit on the shifter nicely. Once in place, use a couple of nylon zip ties to hold it in place, and it's pretty much done! Run the shifter through the gears to make sure it does not interfere.

Put your console back together, and this mod is done.

If this took you more than 30 minutes from start to finish, you are either more particular than I am, or you need some special help :) Hope this helps!