What were the engineers thinking... cab ergonomics??

[fastereddie]

Subject: 2004 Mack Granite
Design fault: placement of the shift lever, Eaton Fuller 9 sp LL

The lever is not angled towards the driver. Basically the shift knob is in the middle of the cab and towards the rear forcing the driver the shift the 4 and 8 gears using his shoulder. Not easy when you have an old shoulder injury.

Solution: To bend the lever forward and to the left about 2" and 4"

Gotta give some thought how to do it without hurting the top of the tranny.

[Rawlco]

The 9 speeds can be like that in these small steering wheel "better vision" trucks.
Two thoughts.

There may be an adjustment of the "throw" or stroke length of the shift lever. Someone experienced in repairing/rebuilding/servicing that model of transmission may be able to adjust it. NOTE that you very well may have it already adjusted to the short throw setting and nothing further can be done.

If you do end up trying to bend the "stick" then I recommend removing it from the transmission before applying undue force. That way you will avoid damaging anthing extra expensive and if you happen to break the stick you will be halfway to replacing it. Good luck.

You could actually clamp another partial shift lever to the existing one to test the best angle and then bend or have another one made.

[special k]

Just heat it with a torch at your shop whee you want to bend it. That way you're not putting all kinds of stress into the trans. Take two big wrenches that just slide over the stick and use the bottom one to hold the stick in place and the top one to do the bending. Don't waste any time bending it so the heat doesn't have time to travel down the stick to isolater bushing. Remember to move the airlines well out of the way beforehand and you'll have to remove the handle. Any decent mechanic can do it in 15 minutes.