So I’m guessing that some of you have run into the problem of not being able to put an aftermarket shift knob on your Fiero easily. The problem is that the shifter arm on Fieros (and other GM’s) is larger than most other cars so the aftermarket kits don’t have adapters that will fit on them. I’ve even come across some where the hole in the knob is smaller than the Fiero arm. A couple of years ago I shortened the shifter by cutting off the arm just above where it’s welded to the bracket, cut the “S” bend out and re-weld it back to the side of the remaining piece in the bracket. In order to get a knob on (the factory knob wouldn’t fit any more) I had to machine down a brass bushing to take up the gap between the hole in the knob and the diameter of the arm. That worked ok for a couple of years but eventually the knob, being a cheap one, broke and I found that different knobs have different size holes so the bushing I made wouldn’t work on a new knob. Plus I wanted to upgrade to a higher quality knob and again, different size hole. So I contemplated a couple of different ideas. The Fiero Store has a nice shortened shifter with a smaller diameter shaft for just this reason but half the fun for me is the design and build so I didn’t want to just by one (that’s too easy). I thought about machining down the shaft (a friend of mine owns a Hydroplane team and has a great machine shop) but the complexity makes it a little more than I wanted to tackle at least for now. Then I realized I was making it more complicated than I needed to. Here’s what I wound up doing and so far it’s working out great.
The first thing was to (obviously) take a stock shifter arm (out of an 88) and cut off the arm again just above where it welds to the bracket and ground down flat the remaining piece to one, make a better welding surface and two move the arm that I’d be welding back on closer to the center of the shifter (clearance issue).
Then I cut a piece of 1/2” threaded rod three inches long. I chose 1/2” because it’s still large enough to provide plenty of strength but small enough so that most aftermarket kits should have an adaptor that will fit on it.
I like how short it is but if you tackle this you might want to make it a little longer. Getting it to fit into the car when that short is a little tricky. I flattened the part of the rod that would be welded to the bracket and welded it on.
Here is what the finished product looks like (painted flat black) and again so far it’s working well.
