Not too long ago I posted an issue I was having with shifting from first into second gear. Long story short the shift into the 2nd gear gate was EXTREMELY notchy and it was a pretty hard mechanical notch. I even felt it when sitting with the car off and just rowing from 1st to 2nd back and forth. The shifter would make its way into the 2nd gear gate and appear to be all the way back but one more stiff pull on the shifter would get it past the notch and into the gate. This notchy feel was tolerable under slow/controlled shifting but was a real pain under hard acceleration causing me to miss a lot of 1/2 shifts. In the write-up for the sake of full disclosure I mentioned that I had installed a Barton Industries Short Throw shifter but had no idea if that had anything to do with it as I know others have referred to notchy shifting even with the stock piece.
After only a day or two of the thread being active I got a PM from Dave at Barton Industries and he indicated to me that during their initial run of shifters they weren't totally clear on the wide tolerance the GM specs had for the transmission and the linkage mating up to the stock piece. He had one other person complain about the real notchy 1/2 shift and after investigating it learned that the GM tolerance was a little wider than first thought and therefore made a very minor change to the bottom portion of the shifter to take into consideration the wide GM tolerance. It had to be a "perfect storm" for lack of a better expression to have one of the first shifters produced meet up with a car that is on the extreme edge of the GM specs.
Without any prompting from me, Dave immediately offered to send me a replacement piece that was machined to handle the wider specs as soon as the next batch was produced. A week or so later the piece showed up and a few days later I swapped it in and now the 1/2 shift is smooth as butter and I have yet to miss a 1/2 shift under heavy acceleration. 1/2 is almost like 3/4 for me now and I could not be happier with the outcome.
The main point I'd like to have conveyed here is that Dave is obviously monitoring the forum for anything related to his and his organizations products and beyond that, proactively reaching out and offering immediate assistance if there is even the slightest notion their product may play a role in an undesirable condition.
I have already thanked Dave privately but wanted to make sure his actions were communicated to the rest of the community. Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is watching and that is exactly what Dave did. He didn't have to get involved in my thread or my issue but did. At the very least, I hope this helps anyone on the fence in deciding what route to go with an aftermarket shifter. While I am sure all the products offered in this community are quality pieces, it is this type of service and professionalism that earns my business for a long time to come.
Thanks again Dave....
As an aside, here is the original thread I posted with the issue;
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95800