I probably should have posted this in the Newbie section - but here goes. Just put on a 2"BL (Crawler type - fit great!) and because of the lowered point of contact to the trans., the 1-5speed shifter is binding up with the boot - 2,4,R arent staying in place. The 4wd shifter works fine. I searched and read about flipping the inner boot downward, bending the shifter arm, trimming the metal framing, and even drilling new holes and mounting the whole boot further back. Well - the boot flip didn't help too much and I couldn't bend the steel shifter with my cheapo vise. I also trimmed away the thin metal frame - no luck. Does anyone have a 1990 truck that has delt with this? Looking at other posts, the metal frame looks different on other years to me. Thanks for any help....

 

Talk to Roger Brown (4Crawler) see if he has any other ideas for you. That would be your best bet.

 

Take the rubber boot part completely off and shift it (as in actually drive it) and see if you trimmed the metal enough.

 

When we did my body lift, I found I needed to weld in the extension, the space where we put it in made the shifter clear most everything. WE did however have to heat up the shifter and bend it (after removing the soft part of the shifter)

that, plus the boot flip fixed most of my shifter problems.

 

When I had one on my 89 4Runner the stick shift didn't hit but sometimes when in 4 low and putting some torque on it the 4wd shifter would pop out. A little bit of metal trimming and I was fine.

 

As noted on the web page:
- http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...l#ManualTranny

This was on an '89 pickup w/ 2" body lift:


And if the binding is to one side or the other of the shifting pattern, try moving the shifter boot plate:



For example, 2, 4 and R are to the back, so move the shifter base plate back to more center it over the shifting pattern.

Or slap in a raised/high clearance t-case crossmember.

 

my 4lo is rubbing with my 2in body lift, but both boots are trashed anyway, is there a good after market boot to use? would the factory leather sr5 boots work better?

 

Factory leather boot is just a sock kind of thing that fits over the rubber boot.

 

There are actually 2 to 3 sets of boots. A small rubber one over the very base of the shifter, that seals the shifter base from dirt. Second boot is a heavy rubber one attached to the floor that seals the floor opening from heat/noise/fumes under the truck. Then a 3rd, cosmetic boot on top, mostly there for looks. My SR5 boot is a soft of vinyl coated fabric, most of the vinyl has flaked off and it is mostly cloth. Those boots are softer than the regular boots and are less likely to cause shifter binding, but they won't seal out fumes/noise like the heavy rubber inner boot. You could try one and see if it helps. For 4LO binding, often trimming the sheet metal web between the "8" shaped piece under the heavy boot will help:



Either trim a little for clearance (as pictured above) or easier still is just to remove the whole center web, making the "8" into a "O" shape.

Or install a short throw shifter to both raise the t-case shifter and reduce it's front-back throw:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/ForSale/...wShifter.shtml



Or raise up the t-case an inch or two and eliminate the problem and gain ground clearance:
http://www.4crawler.com/4x4/CheapTri...ft/index.shtml

 

I also had the same problem when I installed my 2"BL so I searched out a quick and cheap solution.





What I did was I ground around the metal frame just to provide a little more room. I then cut the hard ruber boot so that only the last 2 "ribs" were left. I used this as the "base" to hold my new shift boot in place. I then picked up a cheap "ghetto shift boot" as it has become known around here attached it to the "ribs" on the bottom to hold it in place and then tied it up top . As you can see it works, looks "good" and is something tha is easy to do.

-=Morphine=-