Only thing under there in protecting from weather is a rubber boot. It'd physically would stop water/dirt, but not ambient temps and I guess condensation, etc.
That was the hardest part of the install, getting the rubber boot underneath back in it's place/grooves after installing shifter.

The leather boot is attached to the trim piece if I remember right. Take your shifter **** off first before you take the trim piece off with boot attached.
The boot has to slide off the shifter shaft at the top.

And breaking clips, don't worry. I used a flat screw driver wrapped in electrical tape. Wedged underneath trim piece a little off center of center console, got my fingers underneath trim and gave a slight jerk upwards. Popped right up with no problems. Easy as pie. Snaps back in/down when you're all done with install.

Hope this helped.

 

This might sound weird but I'm doing the install right now and I'm all done except the shift **** doesn't screw back on, its almost like there was more to the old one that should have come out. Does that make sense? I was comparing the 2 when I had them out and was thinking man the RE is way taller whats up with that...anyone ever have this problem? I think I need to get a new shift **** christ...

 

IIRC, there was a small silver metal collar that needed to be transferred from the old shifter to the RE.

 

Dood I found a pic comparing the 2, and mine is jacked. Check it out...



I've circled about how long the stock one is compared to the other, I think the actually threaded piece is still in the shift ****...

Christ.

 

From end to end, yes it's longer.
From pivot point (ball) to in-cabin, it's the same length.
From pivot point to gearbox linkage, it's longer...that's were it gets it's shorter throw.

My oem shifter screwed back on, but could feel resistance from the old thread lock gunk still in the **** threads.
True, that is an important piece to transfer from oem one.

 

Here's an acutal picture of what I pulled out LOL, to me, its ****ed.

 

Well I was right, with some patience and ingenuity I managed to get out the top portion from the ****.

 

^^damn thats ridiculous

 

Ya bro, I couldnt figure it out. I guess I man handled that thing in half! LOL

So all I did was put the other half in the vice which still allowed me to turn to **** and pull out the top half...

 

Yeah, that's why Infiniti says you need to grab the shift lever with locking pliers right under the top of the boot before you try to twist off the ****. Hey, don't sweat it. The RE is great and you'll never want to go back.

 

Umm, stupid question to ask but I noticed how your shift **** is still perfectly fitted into the boot and trim piece. you did remember to remove the shift **** before anything else right? Because it looks like you just yanked everything upwards and the shift **** was still connected to the upper portion of the shift lever, taking that part off of the entire assembly.

 

Ya thats what it looks like but thats not what happened, I followed the RE instructions using a cresent wrench and twisted the ****, except I guess instead of un-screwing the **** it broke loose half way down, then I pulled it off thinking Ok that seems short LOL.

No big deal, just put the top portion in a vice and twisted the **** that way, even then it was still a bitch, it was on so tight. Thread Lock I assumme...

 

the AC800 is the new part number for the newer models...

CD000 is the old number...

And we do have the AC800's available

 

hey, I thought I said that already ^^^^^^^^