You guys have loaded me with a lot of good info to try tonight, I will let you know.                        The tranny shop does nice work, a lot of old cars and street rods in and out.                  Thanks for offering to mail shifter, I should be able to work with pics.

On my ZX trans with the non ZX shifter, it did have issues fully engaging (on the bench anyway, I have yet to install it) I did some grinding on the shifter after marking with finger nail polish and shifting. On mine it was clear there was an issue before the grinding, as the shifter was not fully engaging, you could feel it not going into the detents completely.

IIRC it was 5th and reverse that had the issue.

The ZX shifter with its spring loading on the bottom was prob made to correct this.

I'm supposed to be using the zx shifter, right? It has the bend in it. 

The one I modified did NOT have any extra hardware on the bottom (spring loaded pivot point). I think the spring loaded will work better but the bend it does not look right. I think the spring loaded pivot was the style use on the ZX.

Edited March 16, 20178 yr by Dave WM

On mine the ZX shifter stood straight up and I would almost hit my radio going into the top gears.  The ZXs have a different boot, no leather and a different console position.  I went to a junkyard that has some 280s and got a couple of shift rods.

ZX rod on bottom

The ZX shifter compared to the 280Z 

 

Edited March 16, 20178 yr by siteunseen

I had nicks on front and back, went ahead an ground it down a little. Zx shifter on top, I feel that's the better of the two for the 75, So it seems.

I don't think that 1979 used the shifter with the spring-loaded bushing, did ti?  The FSM shows the older style, not the ZX style.  1979 is a transition year for many parts, it's half Z/half ZX.  The transmission itself is the same as the 1978 version.

Edit - question answered, above...  

Edited March 16, 20178 yr by Zed Head

I hope that works for you.  I bet you're going nuts not be able to drive it after all the work you've done.

Its just to the point where I am ready to move on to the next project! But, boy does that exhaust sound good!! Lumens, I posted a pic of shifters next to each other, is the ZX shifter i'm using a long nose??

YES!!!!

Congratulations!

Now it's time to wizz the neighbors off with that exhaust.