Made my own shift plate

[willo]

My 86 325e came with the steel plate mount for the shifter. I got in there to swap in my z3 shifter (finally) and found that the plate only has one good mount left on it.

I spent some time with my mill and made my own shifter mount. It uses the newer style bushing, a 1/2 inch aluminum base plate and another 1/2 inch aluminum capture plate. $20 in materials and some adventures in mill tuning later...

[willo]

The machine work looks awful on the outside - I'm still figuring out my feeds and speeds and had a really crappy bit to cut the deep stuff.

[Madhatter]

It's very tall. I wouldn't be surprised if you run into clearance issues when you bolt it in, or find you can't get a gear. Didn't need to be anywhere near that thick.

[willo]

I don't know about it being too thick

I milled 1/4 inch deep pockets into both pieces to contain the shifter bushing. I wanted thicker plate to allow for plenty of support.

You're probably not wrong on the clearance issues - but I can fix that.
I can always remove material. That's the beauty of having a mill in your garage. The extra challenge was that it's my new mill and it required a fair amount of tuning to get things to come out.

The AKG looks like it's maybe 3/8" thick.

[willo]

success: Now working prototype

I can drive my car again. Woo.

I managed to pull the old steel shift plate this afternoon. I picked up a ratcheting 13mm wrench and was able to put it on top of the forward mounting bolt. Another wrench was required to hold the lower nut. After about 10 minutes of very slow wrenching I got the plate out. I didn't have to drop the transmission, driveshaft or anything else. (Caveat: One bolt hole on the plate was already busted out.)

I redid my cad a bit to adjust the center 1 inch forward. I'm thinking I might like it about .2 inches back after driving it.

I'm short on material, so I popped the big block version on the mill and re-cut the outside profile, now it looks more like the AG version. My crap end mill screwed me over towards the end again, so I finished things with a sawzall and cursing. I just can't bring myself to post pics of the super ugly shifter.

My 86 only has two forward slots for mounting carraige bolts. The rear would have to use the console mounting bolt. Since my re-man'd prototype is actually too short on the back to reach, I added a carriage bolt to grip the lip of the shifter hole in the body.

Shifting is now super short and notchy. The body mounted plate allows the linkage to clear nicely. (The original loose plate had the linkage rubbing on the drive shaft with the longer shifter)

I'm moving in the next few weeks, so after the move I'll re-mill my shifter. There's a small bit of play in the OEM bushing. I may cut a slot in the upper retainer and add a screw to close the bushing around the shift ball.

[Madhatter]

I just drilled the post out. If you put a bolt through the underside of the tunnel, tack it in place with a weld or epoxy, then bolt through the plate. All you then have to do is make up a simple right angled plate for the centre console to bolt to. One end goes over the bolt, the other screws into the console.

[AndrewBird]

I'd get threaded inserts and put them in from the top. Then just thread the bolts in from the top.

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