Alright, so I bought an NA '86 a few months ago as a project that I'm planning on turning into a daily. Long story short, it'd been sitting under cover with a window down for about 25 years, and at some point the shifter got removed and never put back in for some reason. Because of this, there's a bunch of dirt, cat hair, and other nasty stuff in the shifter housing that I'm gonna need to clean out. I know that it's gonna be a pain in the *** to clean without taking out of the car, but anyone have advice/experience with something of the sort? After looking at the service manual I think I can get access through the plate on the side, but I'm not sure about what the best way to approach this would be.

 

the plate on the side probably is best. or just flush the thing out from the top.

to take the plate off you really would have to remove the mount and lower the rear of the trans, which you might do anyways, the mount is bad

 

alright thanks, was hoping I wouldn't have to mess around with the trans a whole lot but it is what it is I guess. Also why would the mount be bad? Just deteriorated from sitting for so long?
Looks like I can get the the mounts for about $175 from Atkins if I need to.

 

its an FC, the mount is always bad unless you just changed it

 

The heat from the exhaust seems to help deteriorate the mount. As j9fd3s had stated, the mount does commonly fail. If you are removing the mount for this cleaning, I would also recommend replacing it.