How do you get the shift lever out of the rod end support/pivot. Is the top half and the bottom half screwed together? If it is, mine seams to be real stubborn. It should be simple, am I missing something?

There is a bolt a the bottom of the shifter. Once you take that out, there is a bushing that can be removed which, I didn't until I used a hammer and lightly tapped it off. We were replacing the bushing anyway, so wasn't too worried about it.

I didn't have any trouble with the bolt and the linkage to the rod. I can not get the shifter rod out of the ball joint. It seems to spin 360 degrees just fine in the pivot. I assume the top and bottom of the shifter rod are threaded together. I'm trying to get the shift rod out of the ball joint so that I can bend it away from the cockpit side for more clearance. If the shift rod is threaded together mine must be seized up. The next stop is to put a vice grip on the top and the bottom of the shift rod and start twisting unless I hear otherwise.

I don't recall that the shift lever is two pieces, I think it is just one piece so twisting isn't going to do anything.

If you un-bolt and remove the shifter mount from the side of the car, you could screw the rod end out to get more clearance and may be easier to get the shifter rod out if you still need to when it's out of the car.

I would be careful about bending the shift rod as I have had one break off in my hand on the straight from turn 11 to turn 12 at Road America when shifting to fifth.

There is a little spring clip that holds a sleeve onto the lever below the heim joint. It is a full loop, (like a slinky) so it isn't obvious...

MR. Harriman is correct - in looks like:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#circlips/=n2os1o

Except it is ABOVE the heim on the shift lever.

It's called a Spirolox...it's a much more secure type of snap ring...it's the top side of the rod end that shifter pivots in. A link about them http://www.spirolox.com

Are you out of adjustment on the shifter heim joints in the cockpit area? It may be easier to adjust the heim joints for more clearance than bending the shifter. If it's slop that you're dealing with, the most common wear point is the pivot point at the transmission universal joint that has a steel pin that tends to wear over time (also that last universal joint tends to get sloppy over time and may need to be replaced.)

First time I needed to adjust the clearance, I only adjusted the heim at the shifter and ran into clearance issues with the Butler seat, so I also had to adjust the second heim. Seemed counterintuitive but the way I did it was to unbolt the mounting brackets supporting the heims and rotate the brackets to make the heim adjustments. May be an easier way (now that I know about the Spirolox) but really not too difficult with the center section removed.

Mike D wrote:It's called a Spirolox...it's a much more secure type of snap ring...it's the top side of the rod end that shifter pivots in. A link about them http://www.spirolox.com

Thanks, I was wondering about that.