transmission gear shift lever return spring

[dvonk]

due to regular use in the past 50 years, my transmission gear shift lever return spring is broken. these seem to be very scarce--i think ive seen two on eBay in the past three years. the last one i saw on eBay sold for over $50.

ive tried to fabricate one out of stiff piano wire but had no success, and herein lies the dilemma: anything that is stiff enough to resist plastic deformation under the regular range of motion is also very difficult to manipulate into an exact shape by hand... not to mention the clearance in the steering column collar is limited, so the shape of the spring has little allowance for the minute differences made by crude hand bending.

does anyone know if they reproduce these springs? Group 4.008, No. 1174495 is supposedly the GM designation for the part, but i do not have a parts reference book to verify this. included is a picture i grabbed from the last eBay auction. if anyone has any input, that would be great... am i the only one with this problem?

[58limited]

I have not seen that these are reproduced. I passed several up that sold on ebay prior to 2003 for $35.00 - thought that was a crazy price for a little spring, until the Europeans started buying them for $135.00!!

[Smartin]

I just saw one on ebay in the last week...never paid attention to the price, though. I have a feeling I'm going to need one myself.

[dvonk]

yeah, the picture is the from last week's auction. i wanted to bid but i couldnt bring myself to pay over $50 for piece of wire...