Huge shout out to Grady Burch for cutting one of his very valuable parts loose. As you can see in the photo, the correct NOS shift boot is on the left, my rat, mouse and racoon eaten original boot and the last photo is the more common replacement NOS boot. From what I know, the original boots are much thicker than the replacement boots and would cause the shifters to pop out of gear so GM replaced them with the taller, more bellows and thinner version. I remember this issue when I owned my 69 back in 1981, the shifter would always pop out of gear when you would take you foot off the throttle. I always thought it was the shifter or internal transmission issue when in fact it was likely due to the original boot putting too much tension on the shifter as it is so much stiffer than the replacement. Thanks again Grady for cutting this one loose as these are pretty tough to find.
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