The
original boot, which is "snapped" into the hole in
the floor of the car; is designed to be used with
an upper vinyl "dressup" boot that is glued and
"pinch-ring" retained on to the shift plate.
Shown
above are the 1600 (left) and 2000 (right) shift
holes. Some of the 1600's already have the oblong
hole. We believe this was supposed to be a
production change but was not done with any
consistency. However in approximately 1969 Nissan
superceded both of the original boot part numbers
into one part number, which is the only boot that
has been available since then. A lot of cars have
been modified to take the available #328-05 (2000)
boot. If you have the round hole you can either
elongate the hole to take the common 2000 boot or
find a universal non-original boot. As the 4-spd
wears you sometimes find your shifter hitting the
edge of the "small" hole anyway. If you decide to
elongate the hole, take a look at how much
clearance your shifter has in all of the gears
before you decide on elongating it forward or to
the rear of the car.
One
option some people are using in their round hole
68-70 1600s is the 65 1500 boot. It is just a titch
smaller; but the real problem is that the hole in
68-70 is not totally round. The floor in that area
has some overlapping layers of metal or tar coating
which makes installation problematic. If you do
decide to also use glue; you need to clean the
underside of the floor where the boot will fit or
the glue won't bind.
NOTE:
If
the various components to your 1600 shifter
mechanism, both inside and outside the transmission
are worn, you will find it very easy to pull out
the lower rubber boot and pull out or tear apart
your upper vinyl boot.
