The Pro 5.0 Power Tower Shifter is a really nice piece of work. It has a lightweight aluminum base, and all steel internal mechanisms. The top part is also steel where the stops are. The stops are in place to help prevent damage to your transmission when you shift really hard. (Sometimes called "banging gears"). The stops take the brunt of your gear slamming and keeps you from over-extending and bending the shifting forks inside the transmission. It is also spring loaded to center the shifter, and the handle is shaped and placed in a more natural position, to help you hit the correct gear more easily. It provides a crisp, precise, and confident feeling when rowing through the gears.

Here is what the stock shifter looks like in my car to the left. You can see that it sticks up above the boot slightly. You'll notice in the after shot later that the new shifter sits flush with the boot, and is nearly an inch shorter. This results in a tighter shifting pattern as well.

The first thing I did was read through the instructions provided by Pro 5.0. Then I went out to search the internet to find out what others have experienced with this shifter. About the only thing negative I could find was that some people experienced an increase in interior noise coming from the transmission, and a couple others said that the bolts had come loose after a period of time. I decided to address both these issues on my installation, and I'll cover what I did as we move along. I also painted the shifter handle with some flat black enamel primer paint. Although this is purely cosmetic, I decided if my shifter boot starts sagging, I didn't want to see shiny metal under there. I wanted it to look more factory. I also take the car to car shows, and sometimes they check for details like that! You don't have to do this step, I'm just particular in how I like everything to look in the car.

Before I started the installation, I went out and bought a tube of Red Thread Locker. This has a very high holding power, and prevents bolts from coming loose and backing out. Why do this step? The shifter has a steel top that mates to an aluminum bottom. Steel and aluminum have different expansion rates when they get hot, making it very easy for bolts to work their way loose. This was one of the reasons the LT1 intake manifold bolts can work themselves loose on an LT1 engine. The aluminum manifold mates to the cast iron block, and expands and contracts at different rates from the heat cycling of the engine. So I removed each of the four bolts one at a time, cleaned the threads really well, and applied the thread lock to each bolt, and tightened them back down. Did it work? Only time will tell. It should make it hard for those bolts to come back out though.

The first thing we need to do is to disassemble the small and large console, and remove the shifter knob from the car. The shift knob will come off by turning it counter clockwise. From the factory, they put some sealant on the threads before installing this knob, so it'll be a little tough to turn at first. Once you get it started, It just simply unscrews off. The next thing to do is to remove your ashtray, and empty out the center console. Don't forget to remove your coin holder from the front of the console storage area. Then remove the two screws from either side of the front of the console down where your feet go, (as pictured) and then remove all the screws from inside the console storage area. There will be two large, and two small ones in this area as pictured.

The center console comes apart in two pieces, as you can see in the picture to the left. The two smaller screws inside the console storage compartment hold this top-most section on. Once you have removed those screws, lift up to remove this top part. You do not have to remove the rubber boot that went around the shifter. This will all slide over it. Just make sure you have removed the shift knob before doing this step. When you get the smaller part almost all the way off, you'll notice it's connected by wires going to the cigarette lighter, ashtray light, and to the traction control switch if you have one. These clip on with a simple clip lock, and pressing in the lock part with your thumb will release them. 

The ashtray bulb clip is a little different. In this case you won't disconnect the wire to the bulb, you just simply remove the whole thing, bulb and all. The bulb clips in with a plastic clip that's easily removed. The picture to the left is the square plastic area where the bulb mounted.

Once you have the small upper console out, you can continue to remove the lower console. You'll find a bolt in the middle of the console approximately where the ashtray used to be. This will be the last bolt you have to remove to get the lower console out.

Once you have the bolt removed, you'll have to release the emergency brake lever so that you can pull it straight up, to get the console out. There's a bit of a trick to this... if you study the top picture to the right, you'll see that the E-Brake lever has a steel cog with teeth on it, and another metal catch piece that is spring loaded to engage the lever with the cog. All you have to do is get a screwdriver, gently spread the rubber guides of the console so you can see down along the E-Brake lever, and push the screw driver on the back side of that small spring loaded lever. This will disengage it from the cog, and allow you stand the E-Brake lever straight up. Once you have done that, simply lift the larger console off, and set it aside. If your vehicle has the accessory power socket in it at the front of this console, you'll have to disconnect the wires to it first.

Now that you have that out of the way, let's remove the stock shifter by loosening the two screws on the side, and sliding the stock shifter handle off. There are seven screws holding the rubber boot down. Loosen and remove these screws. Once the screws are out, gently pry up in one corner to get the rubber boot loose, then remove it. 

You'll see four 13mm bolts holding the stock shifter in. Once you get the bolts loose, you'll most likely have to pry lightly to get the shifter base off. Mine was held on with RTV Sealant from the factory, so it'll take a little prying. There is a factory pry spot on either side of the shifter. You can see the tab in the picture to the left, and me prying on the picture to the right. I used a small pry bar against the tab on the passenger side to gently pry it off. Be careful not to get dirt inside the shifter mechanism area as it can get down into the tranny from here.

You'll have to scrap off the gasket material from around the housing and make sure it's real clean before you continue to install your new shifter. I used a screwdriver to get most of it off, and a good rag to clean the remaining RTV Sealant from the area. Please be careful not to get any down inside there. If you do, just use a clean rag to wipe it out.

Here's where we change off a little for installing the new piece, and it's up to you if you want to do it the same way I did. Normally you would put a small thin bead of sealant around the area, and put your new shifter on top. My philosophy is that since these are completely flat, machined surfaces, there should be a gasket here, not RTV. I have two reasons... Number one the RTV is going to smash out really thin, as evidenced by how little of it adhered to the surface areas when I remove the stock setup. Smashing the RTV this thin is essentially going to give you a poor seal, and metal-to-metal contact in some areas... and that will transmit noise and high-frequency vibration to your shifter. Then second is that it seemed like an awful weak seal to me. I chose to make a rubberized gasket to put in place here to provide a much better seal to the tranny, and to completely isolate the metal of the shifter base, from the tranny to break the transmittal of sound. Since I'm writing this after my install, I can tell you that it must have worked like a charm as I get zero additional noise from this shifter, and very little extra vibration. I can barely tell the difference in this respect from the stock setup. I simply bought some rubberized paper gasket material from the local auto store, and made my own. Unfortunately I didn't take any still shots of my technique in making this gasket, but if you watch the video on it, you'll see an easy and quick way to form and make the gasket for this. It only took an extra 10 minutes to make the gasket. You can then use a very thin bit of RTV smeared on the gasket before putting it in place, or do like I did and use some Permatex Hylomar HPF Gasket Dressing. (Permatex Part No. 25249) This stuff doesn't set up like RTV does, and will make a reliable and easy-to-remove seal. After you have done one of these techniques, install your shifter base, and tighten down the four bolts.

You will also need to cut the big rubber boot before you put it back on. The reason for this is that you want the rubber portion to fit down around the neck of the Pro 5.0 shifter instead of over the top. (Like you see pictured on the right.) If you don't cut the boot and just place it back over the top, you risk getting dirt and stuff down into the shifter mechanism area itself, and possibly damaging or ruining it. This rubber boot is real soft and stretchy, so cut the hole on the small side, so that you can stretch it around the neck of the Pro 5.0, and get a good tight seal. I stayed at least a half-inch from the edge when I did my cut. When I stretched it over the shifter, it made a really nice tight fit. Put your 7 bolts back in the boot and tighten them down lightly. Don't over tighten or you'll strip them out. Remember how easy they came loose? It doesn't take much.

Now for the final step... setting your stop points. Go ahead and install your shifter handle on, and use some of the red thread locker on the bolts before you put them in. This will insure that they stay locked in place. Next we set the shift stop bolts. What I did was loosen the stop-bolt jam nuts, and move the bolt down so that it wasn't near the shifter. Then, shifting into gear and pulling back on the stick with a moderate amount of pressure, I brought the stop bolt up where it would touch, then backed it down a quarter turn. When you loosen up on the shifter, it'll move slightly farther away from the bolt. The reason I did it this way was that I had read where some people had gotten the bolt to close to the shifter in gear, and it would cause either shifting problems if it was too far up, or the shifter would rattle against the bolt if it barely touched in the relaxed position in gear. That's why I pulled back on the shifter some, and made sure it would only touch the bolt head if I pulled or pushed hard on the shifter. It should never touch the stop bolt with normal shifting, but if you slam a gear real hard racing the car, you want that bolt to help stop the shifter from going too far. Once you have the stop where you want it, tighten the jam nut on the back. I didn't put any threadlocker on the stop bolts, but it wouldn't hurt to put some on there. I just didn't think about it at the time. haha.

After you get that all done. It's time to reassemble it all. Big console goes back in first, making sure you hook up the electrical connections. Followed by the smaller console. The smaller top console pretty much just snaps in place, then you put in the two small screws back in the storage compartment. As soon as you push the E-Brake lever down, it's back working again. You might pull it up and down a few times to make sure it's working ok. That's it... go for a drive and enjoy your new shifter!!