nikovdh

My shifter assembly unit casing has bubbles and scuffs, not very attractive. I had it in my mind to replace the shifter assembly (but not the actual shifter, at least right now)



So I learned today while at the pick-a-part in Ontario, CA that the part where my bubbling is, is just a faceplate on the shifter assembly that attaches.. but you cannot remove the cosmetic plate because of the shifter being wider than the open space. I could not figure out how to remove the shifter on the cars. One of them has a shifter assembly unit faceplate that is in excellent condition, and I want it! So I came here and searched the forums and found very little information and zero pictures in regards to taking apart of the shifter. The only information I got was that there are 2 circle tabs on the back of the shifter, and you must pop those off and unscrew. However, I'm not replacing my shifter with a new one.. so apparently (based on that same post) I need to be careful of destroying the wiring of the Overdrive button when taking it off. If anyone could explain in detail (pics are even better too) how to safely take these things off smoothly and without damaging the original shifter, it would be greatly appreciated!

This is the thread where I got the little bit of information about removing shifter:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...-the-mail.html

nikovdh

Update:

With very little information available, I took the plunge. Removed the whole center console for plenty of room to work with.

Conclusion/Details:

The blue wire below/inside the shifter handle (overdrive wire) is what keeps the shifter from coming off the top as easy as we would like.

When looking at the shifter unit, you ponder whether you could disconect the OD button wire from outside the shifter unit and feed it underneath the shifter tube (after taking out the 4-corner big bolts for the whole shifter assembly) so you could replace the shifter (or the faceplate in my case), but the spot where OD wire connects outside the assembly -does not seem to be the typical "disarm electronic plug by holding a tab and pulling apart".. no, infact it seemed like it was either glued tightly together when the car was created, or it was designed to not be unpluggable.. I spent 20 minutes playing with it. My step dad and I determined we need to cut the OD wire and re-splice. The blue wire in my car was tight and folded , making it so I could not raise the shifter that far from the assembly, and making it so I couldn't pop the OD button off. What you have to do is remove the 4 big bolts from each corner of the shifter assembly. Find and carefully cut the plastic holding straps that are folding the wires up, so you can create more wire length for the OD/wire. Raise the shifter assembly up / sideways so you can look underneath the shifter tube where the OD wire is coming from, and you must push some of the wire upwards towards the shift lever. This will make is so you can raise the shifter even further from the assembly, and also allows you to easily pop off the Overdrive button so you can cut it. Once you cut it, this is your opporunity to replace the faceplate or your new shifter. After installing whatever you want, re-splice the OD wire to the OD button (step dad did this, I'm not familiar with that step). You can start putting things back together after that.

Here is an after-photo. Faceplate looks so much better! I might try to find a cleaner shifter at the pick-a-part today. For some reason, my shifter button isn't working correctly, so I have to manually shift through gears by pressing the white lever within the shifter hole lol. We're not sure why it isn't working correctly. On tuesday we are going to troubleshoot further. We're thinking maybe the spring is defective after being tossed around, or possibly the little triangle things that he used for re-spliicing the wire that are in the shifter tube. We'll see..

Hopefully this information helps others. It wasn't a step by step picture guide, but it should be helpful.

nikovdh

So, I figured out what was wrong with my shifter. Incase anyone else runs into this problem, I will explain and post a photo of my diagram. I went to the self service junk yard and took apart the shifters on ES300's there. I noticed that every shifter's internal rod-cap was 10 rings up and the highest point on the cap was pointed to the top right. Picture included. It is easy for this piece to move around when your working on replacing the shifter or the faceplate, and if your not aware of it, you might run into the same problem I did. I had just enough wire length to take the shifter off again without having to go underneath the unit since I had fed it some length the other day, and then I adjusted the cap to the 10th ring up and correct direction.

After pictures posted, beautiful!
Maybe a cooler shifter would be nice if anyone has suggestions.