[Tim]

hi eric, thanks for getting back to me via email. i am looking forward to using the new rod and ends with my older style shifter. once again your service and concern for your customer's happiness is way above and beyond what i would expect. this is not the fist time novak had taken care of me...

THANK YOU!

i am not sure what length my rod is on the old style on my jeep but i installed it just like eric mentioned above. it works really well there. i tried to keep everything as parallel as possible and splitting the difference when needed.

any difficulty i had along the way was my own fault by wanting to rush and once things were optimized, all was good!

couple of tips for those who want to bend their own canes:

-oxy acetylene is your friend. regular propane torch, not too smurfy...

-i used 1/2" copper to make a pattern for desired bend.

-do not quench the cane after bending... it could make it brittle. just let it cool on its own.

-you do not have to cut the tub or console. keep tweaking and you will get it. i cut my tub but i also cleaned, prepped and coated the bare metal before i installed the boot.

-keep your drivetrain at the correct elevation. same as when it's mounted to the belly pan or cradle. i have the clayton crossmember so it was pretty easy for me with a solidly mounted tranny/tcase.

-be patient, trying to rush through it is not such a good thing.

once again, it was a fun project and it is sooooo much better than stock linkage.

no more messy underpants from t/case popping out of gear (stock linkage, that is) on steep ledges for this jeeper.

[SuperWade2]

Thanks again for all your help Eric...

I hope this thread is beneficial for folks looking at upgrading to the Novak shifter, as I believe their product (while not the easiest to setup) is spectacular and as Eric as demonstrated here (and via personal emails) that their commitment to the customer is outstanding.

With all of that being said, I had my Jeep at a local 4x4 shop (that I trust) last Fri to take a look at a couple other things they did some "tweaking" of the Novak Setup and have it completely dialed in and shifting absolutely wonderfully. I don't know 100% what they did, nor have I really crawled under to take a look, but it works in and out of all gears smoothly (I mean like it NEVER did with the stock stuff, even before any of the lift stuff), so I guess I can't complain. They didn't adjust my cane "bend" (although it's tilted slightly towards the passenger side, at least from where I had it, but possibly adjusted the linkage underneath. I believe they did tack weld the cane into the cane clamp, which I'm honestly OK with (even if not 100% necessary).

Thanks again to Eric and Jerry and everyone else that helped out....like I said, hopefully my pics, discussion and awesome writeup by Eric will help someone else down the road. Next time I get underneath, or have my Belly Pan off, I will get some pics snapped and add to this thread to see what the shop did.

SW2

[Magneto]

We've not documented the actuator rod lengths for these Jeeps. I know that the shifter is being installed on seven models that used seven different factory transmissions (plus several conversion / upgrade transmissions) not to mention the different factory and conversion engines. This conversation makes interesting the prospect of installing a form on our SK2X page to poll our customers on what Jeep they have, what engine, what transmission, how much body lift, presence of a tummy-tuck, what shifter pivot holes they chose, rod lengths, etc.

I do agree that if we were to poll installers on TJ installations (arguably the most popular Jeep for these installs currently), we could get some useful numbers that would be interesting for comparison purposes. However, where the rod length is ideally the last variable that the installer determines, I think it would effectively reverse the installation process to recommend a rod length as a driving variable. The installation will always be best done using top-down engineering (let the Jeep and driver preference drive the shifter variables) instead of bottom-up engineering (let predetermined shifter hardware variables dictate Jeep and driver acceptance).

It's been fun working with you guys. I get great reminders like this of what a thoughtful and good demographic Jeep folks are and appreciate you letting me throw my .02 in.

[NMLJ]

So I just completed my Novak t case shifter install. It's not bad at all. No offence to the guys that struggled with it.

It took 6 hours start to finish for everything including time for a few pics. My jeep has a 1.25" bodylift and a belly up that raised t case approx 3 inches. I also have a 2 low range which means that I had to have slightly more clearence fro the 2 low position. So keep these things in mind if you use these measurments. I used the recommended holes in the brackets for the tj by the instructions. I didnt have to clearence the tub at all.

It's sooooo nice to be able to get a solid detent click out of all the t case positions.I havent had the pleasure of testing it on the rocks yet, but i'm sure it will be better then the pos factory shifter.








2 HI


2 LOW

[killas1mo]

I am so fed up with installing this right now I almost want to take it out and put the stock linkage back in. its 230 am and I'm calling it a night.

[Mediarocker]

Originally Posted by killas1mo

I am so fed up with installing this right now I almost want to take it out and put the stock linkage back in. its 230 am and I'm calling it a night.

Damn killa, if you were here i'd help you with the install. I'm thinking about doing this to my stock drive train.. my stock shifter is binding and its pissing me off.

[killas1mo]

I'm still working on it tonight. Getting closer to it being right, it just seems the throw is to great for everything to shift in the space that is there. As you see I am back on the computer looking for anything to help with this.