So as the title says, the goal of this car is restoration+ (or OEM+). This means get the car back to factory as close as possible with some improvements here or there that I think Mitsubishi should have done. One of the first things to address was the shifter assembly. Years ago on another project I hacked a couple inches out of the stock shifter arm for a shorter shifter and swapped out the boot/knob. After doing some research on the board I stumbled across a better way to make a hybrid assembly from all OEM parts. It involves taking a 4th gen Mirage shifter base, a 1st gen (91-94 specifically) DSM arm, and cramming them together with new bushings. A full writeup can be found here:
Shout-out to dikdiamond for putting this up on our board!
http://www.4g61t.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=34035
I followed all the steps of this write-up and added just a few touches as I went along. Since I wanted it to appear factory I made sure to file everything down after achieving the cut sizes I wanted for the hole in the base and the length of the pivot rod. I know it is not necessary to make them look pretty, but I'm obsessive like that.
Nice rounded corners on the hole just like the factory stamped ones.
The writeup called for bending a tab to center the new DSM spring the way it was on the assembly it came from. There are two things to mention with that. First, the tab is a little more narrow on a 4g base than a DSM. Second, it is also slightly off center above the pivot arm. The writeup also called to drill a hole for the spring "arm" to attach to, but on a DSM it has the ability to float a little and I found that securing it this way made 1st/2nd gear both feel gummy and the spring wouldn't re-center the shifter. Because of all these things I decided to chop the arm of the spring off, widen the centering tab for the spring, and re-bend the spring a little to gain more tension.
Here is a pic of the tab on top that we widened. This involved laying down some weld and then grinding it down after some test fitting. *sorry no before pics*
Another shot showing it centered more. The pic is a little deceiving.
This pic shows it all put together. Notice my spring is chopped to the left and the long arm is gone. Also notice the spring on top is contacting both the centering tab and the little rod above it. You can kinda tell I slightly bent the spring "arms" on the top so they contact the rod and the tab as the same time. With it not touching both there was some play left in neutral.
Finish it off with a smaller turnbuckle from a DSM.
Throw in some machined aluminum base bushings to take up any extra slop. (Not pictured are the six black plastic bushings I replaced in the pivot points of the assembly. You can get those for $1.XX each from JNZ)
Lather on copious amounts of grease and you're done! Everything is substantially tighter than before, and with the DSM arm it also shortens the throw and the length of the rod on top. My other goal with this mod was to change the boot once the knob was lowered. There was a gap when I tried to use this boot before, but now it fits nice and snug.
First lets cut a plate.
Now bolt it in place.
Dust off our trusty GVR4 boot that has been sitting for years, and viola! Mucho 80's goodness!
Now she looks just like Mitsu should have designed her from the factory. The only downside is there is a lot more resistance when rowing gears then there was before, but that is pretty much something that happens in any car with a short shifter. I still have a silly knob I need to re-thread for shows and when I feel like being a goof, and also bearing to go in the cable ends, but other than that this mod is done.
'Til next time!