Why the Inland shifter gets a bad rap (IMO) ****UPDATE****

[bull]

I believe the reason the poor old Inland shifter has been dubbed "Guess-a-Gear" and hated by many can be traced to a design flaw, or more likely a maintenance item that never got maintained. Where the base of the handle meets the top of the linkage assembly there are three mounting bolts partially held in place by plastic grommets. My guess is that the grommets weren't designed to last forever and once they wore out the shifting got sloppy. Few, if any, Charger owners knew about these grommets or bothered to replace them if they did know and so as time went by the shifter got worse and worse. I designed a permanent fix for this problem (that has yet to be tested fully) by basically replacing these grommets with brass bushings. Eventually I plan on replacing those with a more flexible bronze bushing but I'm going to try these for now. Stay tuned.

[Ghoste]

I agree with you Bull, that is one of the weak points right there.  Is the linkage different in the Inland equipped cars than the Hurst ones?

[bull]

I agree with you Bull, that is one of the weak points right there.  Is the linkage different in the Inland equipped cars than the Hurst ones?

Yes, and the Hurst linkage is what gets all the credit for fixing what I believe is mislaid blame on the Inland linkage. But again, the jury is still out. I need to do some street pounding before I make my mind up fully.

Here's my fix:



This is what my OE grommets looked like when I got the car. The third one was pretty much nonexistent:

topic=95378.0;attach=184774[/img]

[Ghoste]

And that environment and use wouldn't take long to do that to those little bushings either.

[A383Wing]

the rubber bushings in both my Chargers were shot...I just bolted them down with spacers & flat washers to make it a tight fit....both my shifters are tight

[Charger-Bodie]

Did they rubber bush them to stop the handle from rattling? Ive always liked how the inland handles look.

[A383Wing]

more probably do do with taking out the transmission vibration going up through the handle. I have had mine solidly mounted to the shifter mechanism since the late 70's that I really don't notice any issue with it

[bull]

Over the past couple of weeks I've had the chance to drive the Charger quite a bit. Well, maybe 40-50 miles or so between taking it to get buffing quotes and alignments and showing it off to some people who've helped me along the way during the past 8 years or so. Anyway I just wanted to put out a little review on the Inland shifter by saying I'm very happy with the way it feels. There's zero slop, zero guessing, the shifts are solid, tight and smooth. I love the signature Inland reverse lockout feature. My conclusion, barring any future issues, is that the original design problems listed above are the cause of the poor Inland's demise. Death by Hurst due to the failure of some little plastic grommets.

[A383Wing]