KTM==

I understand what you are saying...I guess in my experience, I wanted to make sure everything matched the 5 speed as far as clutch stuff, because the throwout bearing and fork were in perfect condition on the 5 speed, and I just didn't want to use the manual adjusting clutch slave from my 72 when I could have a self adjusting one with the 5 speed.

IF you have a great condition clutch, it would make sense to keep everything the same--there is just a gap between each type of fork/throw out bearing and that's why they need to match whatever clutch is in there. It's not fun to put a 5 speed in with a 5 speed fork/throw out, and have a 4 speed 72 clutch in there...it's called neutral in all gears!

Dogma, a throwout collar from a '4-speed' tranny will fit a 5-speed tranny just fine. The throwout collar has nothing to do with the transmission type, but rather the pressure plate.

For instance, if you use a Centerforce pressure plate for a 240z, you MUST buy a 280z coupe throwout collar, eventhough you are not swapping out your 4-speed transmission. The 240z collar is too long (IIRC - 50/50 chance).

The fork has no bearing either. You can use ANY fork (240z, 260z, 280z) on either the 4-speed or 5-speed transmission. The only caveat being the 1970 to 1971 forks, as the slave cylinder is slightly different in that it is adjustable. The fork has a small hole in the end.

To keep it simple, though, if you are simply swapping out a clutch and transmission (and are going to reuse the pressure plate), then just use the throwout collar that is on the old transmission, even if it was a 4-speed.

Add to this the fact that in addition to having to cut out the forward edge of the shifter hole, the additional problem that the stock shifter will slam into your console and break the front edge of it as well.

Oh, and that larger hole is nearly impossible to seal...

I would have bought the shifter, except that my car already had all those problems, and all that the PO had done was to swap in a 280Z 4 speed... So over-sized floor cutout, and broken console without the benefit of an overdrive 5th gear. What a deal!

Where can you find this modified shift lever to avoid enlarging the hole on tranny tunnell and console? My old project (now parts car) had this done to both, I'm using the five speed from that car in my current project and would like to avoid enlarging the hole in the tranny tunnel and my good console.

My understanding is that you have to make a shifter. Welding a piece offset just sufficiently to clear the original opening. I've had it explained to me by a Z expert whose done it countless times, and will also do it for my conversion.

The modified lever looks like one of these:

Thanks for clearing that up guys. I guess I'll have to find one of those or have my current shift lever modified. That is quite the bend.