Velognome 

Can a 50's/60's vintage shifter be rebuilt? I've got a nice clean shifter with either worn detents or a weak spring and a box of ugly shifters that work like new. Is a rebuild possible?

Image is from Jollyrogersmotors

rhm

I've been thinking about that. Haven't done it. That said, as I understand it,

1. There are two rivets that you need to drive out. Don't drive them all the way out; only far enough to let you take things apart.

2. You can definitely sharpen up the "detents' as you call them with a hand grindstone or dremel.

3. You can presumably trade parts from one shifter to another as long as they are the same model. But I don't know how much you can switch parts from one model to another. In particular I'm afraid the springs are going to be a problem.

Velognome 

Thanks for the insight rhm, sounds like a snowy winter's day experiment. I'd be happy just swapping the face plates, the rest of the unit seems to clean up but the finish on the face plate is very thin. Problem is, the rivet heads are on the face plate side. I would imagine I could follow the rivet all the way through with a slightly smaller pin, remove the the rivets completely , exchange the plate and reverse the procedure. Since I've got both ugly working shifters and shiney lame ones, that would be eaiser than repairing worn components.


deˇtent [di tént]
(plural deˇtents)
n
mechanical locking device: a locking device that permits movement of a machine part in one direction only, e.g. a lever or spring-loaded catch

[Late 17th century. < French détente "release" < Latin tendere "to stretch"]


Hmmmmm.....I see my error, French word origin and SA is British..

In all further references to "detents" I'll use the Middle English "indentation"